1984
Based on the novel by George Orwell
Adapted for the stage by Lost In Transit
The Company
Rupert Hill - Winston & Ensemble
Christine Mackie - O’Brien & Ensemble
Katie Marie Carter - Julia & Ensemble
Danny Childs - Syme & Ensemble (The Edge)
Dominic Weatherill - Syme & Ensemble (Tour)
Jordan Reece - Parsons & Ensemble
Malcolm Raeburn - Voice of Big Brother
Peter Kerry - Writer
Jonny Cordingley - Director
Alex Moran - Producer
Oliver Vibrans - Composer & Sound Designer
Kate Burnett - Set & Costume Designer
Andrew Croft - Lighting Designer
Sabine Sulmeistere - Technical Stage Manager
Dave Cartwright - Co-creation Producer
Paris Rogers - Marketing Manager
Tiffany Bowman - Assistant Producer
Roger Haines - Executive Director
With thanks
This Production has been developed with countless contributions from the following:
Janine Waters, Porl Cooper, Méabh McGovern, Jason Lamar Ricketts, Meriel Schofield, Anthony O’Driscoll, Will Huntington, Amy Gavin, Nikki Charlesworth, Richard Hand, Veronica Sarño, Juliet Daalder, Daniel Maley, Charlie Young, Sam Berrill, Alex Monk and Sue Ryding. We would also like to thank Janine Waters and all at the Edge Theatre for all their support.
Cast
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WINSTON & ENSEMBLE
TV credits include: Whitstable Pearl, Four Lives, Casualty, Hollyoaks, Midsomer Murders, True Crime, Doctors, EastEnders, Holby City, Urban Gothic, Night and Day and Family Affairs. He is probably best known for his roles as Jamie Baldwin in Coronation Street and Kieron Wallace in The Bill. Film credits include the features Caught by Love, Awaiting, Entity, Meanwhile and Leatherbird, which Rupert also wrote and directed. Short films include Rain on Film, Snatchers, Broadcast Signal Intrusion, How to Disappear Completely, Molehills, The Lookalike and Operation Magpie, which Rupert also wrote and directed.
Theatre credits include: The Fire Raisers (We Merry Dancers), Faith Healer (Kings Arms), Husk (HER Productions), In the Time of Dragons (The Edge), Lady Chatterley's Lover (Tilted Wig), Death of a Salesman (Royal Exchange), Bread & Roses (Oldham Coliseum), The Full Monty (David Pugh Ltd), Private Ear/Public Eye (Original Theatre Company), Once Upon a Time in Wigan (Bolton Octagon), Future Me (Sue Scott Davidson Productions), Deceptions (Ian Fricker Productions), When Harry Met Sally (Jamie Wilson Productions), Wuthering Heights (Hull Truck), Comedy of Errors (Stafford Shakespeare Festival), Séance on a Sunday Afternoon (Nottingham Lakeside), The Replacement Child (Hope Mill Theatre) and Diary of a Football Nobody (Nottingham Playhouse). Rupert also directed The Full Monty tour in 2018/19 and the North West premiere of Cock by Mike Bartlett (53Two).
Rupert's debut play as writer, Husk, was premiered at Hope Mill Theatre in September 2024. Radio credits include over 25 plays for BBC Radio.
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O’BRIEN & ENSEMBLE
Trained at Rose Bruford. Theatre credits include: Trade Secrets, Pax & Anywhere to Anywhere Women's Theatre Group; Pat in premiere of Pat and Margaret Bolton Octagon; Eliza's House & Mary Barton Royal Exchange; Whiskey Galore Oldham Coliseum & Tour; MSND, Comedy of Errors, Three Musketeers, One for the Road, An Inspector Calls, The Railway Children, My Mother Said, Jungle Book, Pinocchio, Sabbat and Blackout Duke's Lancaster; King Lear in Lear Hope Mill Theatre & Shakespeare North Playhouse; Connie in premiere of Olivia Mace's A Pineapple (53Two Manchester, Dukes Lancaster and Lawrence Batley Theatre Huddersfield). TV: Daziel & Pascoe, Wire in the Blood, Bodies, Fat Friends, Clocking Off, Heartbeat, Preston Front, Casualty, September Song, Rumpole, Birthday Girl, The Grand, French & Saunders, Two Pints of Lager, Downton Abbey, Banana, My Phone Genie, Emmerdale, Chelsea Detective, Hollyoaks, Waterloo Road & Coronation Street's GP Dr Gaddas since 2014. Writing: Best Girl (Greater Manchester Fringe nominated Writing for the Stage Award, Pleasance Edinburgh & Tour), Race for Life (Vignettes Hope Mill Theatre), Kin (NW Tour HER Productions & Best Girl Productions 2024) and 2026 BGP tours Iron by Rona Munro to HOME, Hull Truck and Dukes Lancaster. Christine is an Associate Artist & Honorary Patron of the Dukes. -
JULIA & ENSEMBLE
Trained at Rose Bruford. Theatre credits include: Trade Secrets, Pax & Anywhere to Anywhere Women's Theatre Group; Pat in premiere of Pat and Margaret Bolton Octagon; Eliza's House & Mary Barton Royal Exchange; Whiskey Galore Oldham Coliseum & Tour; MSND, Comedy of Errors, Three Musketeers, One for the Road, An Inspector Calls, The Railway Children, My Mother Said, Jungle Book, Pinocchio, Sabbat and Blackout Duke's Lancaster; King Lear in Lear Hope Mill Theatre & Shakespeare North Playhouse; Connie in premiere of Olivia Mace's A Pineapple (53Two Manchester, Dukes Lancaster and Lawrence Batley Theatre Huddersfield). TV: Daziel & Pascoe, Wire in the Blood, Bodies, Fat Friends, Clocking Off, Heartbeat, Preston Front, Casualty, September Song, Rumpole, Birthday Girl, The Grand, French & Saunders, Two Pints of Lager, Downton Abbey, Banana, My Phone Genie, Emmerdale, Chelsea Detective, Hollyoaks, Waterloo Road & Coronation Street's GP Dr Gaddas since 2014. Writing: Best Girl (Greater Manchester Fringe nominated Writing for the Stage Award, Pleasance Edinburgh & Tour), Race for Life (Vignettes Hope Mill Theatre), Kin (NW Tour HER Productions & Best Girl Productions 2024) and 2026 BGP tours Iron by Rona Munro to HOME, Hull Truck and Dukes Lancaster. Christine is an Associate Artist & Honorary Patron of the Dukes.
Katie was born in the City of Manchester and trained at Arts Educational Schools London. She is a founding member of Lost In Transit Theatre Collective and is delighted to be touring this adaptation of George Orwell’s 1984.
Theatre credits include Amy March in the European premiere of Little Women (Hope Mill Theatre), and ensemble roles in White Christmas (Pitlochry Festival Theatre), Annie Get Your Gun (UK Tour) and Oklahoma! (UK Tour).
Screen credits include Hollyoaks and the film Mrs Lowry & Son. Voice Over credits include The Peep Show (Channel 4).
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PARSONS & ENSEMBLE
Jordan has been part of Lost In Transit Theatre Collective for several years, helping to shape 1984, and is thrilled to be taking the production on tour.
Jordan is best known for playing Max Garrick in Emmerdale, and has also worked with the BBC and BBC Radio. His stage credits include the Royal Exchange and Soho Theatre, as well as the award-winning production Letter to Boddah. He has recently wrapped filming on the independent film Tyrant, set for release later this year.
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SYME, CHARRINGTON & ENSEMBLE
Dominic trained at Drama Centre London.
His screen work includes: Boat Story, BBC One/Amazon Freevee; Andor, Disney; Doctors, BBC One; Give Them Wings, Amazon Prime, and Meat Raffle, BFI/Channel 4.
Theatre work includes: Northern Broadsides, The Twelve Tales of Christmas; Kiln Theatre, The Seven Ages of Patience; Riverside Studios, I’m a Philosopher! Why the F*** Am I Here?; The Seven Dials Playhouse, Sundown Town; 02 Victoria Warehouse, Believe! Polar Express.
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VOICE OF BIG BROTHER
Malcolm Raeburn is an actor, writer and director whose long career in theatre and television includes appearances in numerous touring and repertory theatres nationwide, including Manchester Library Theatre, Bolton Octagon and the Royal
Exchange, and further afield Salisbury Playhouse, Sheffield Crucible and the Young Vic. Over seventy television credits range from Brideshead Revisited and The Jewel In The Crown to The Forsyte Saga, Inspector Morse and Accused. He has directed works for Greater Manchester Fringe, Edge Hill University and the Arden School of
Theatre; for JB Shorts he has twice directed plays by Peter Kerry: Icarus Descending and (with James Quinn) Mr Normal. Malcolm has featured in leading roles in innumerable BBC radio dramas over the past thirty years. He is delighted to be working once again with Rupert Hill, with whom he last worked on a BBC radio adaptation of Vanity Fair.
Creatives
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DIRECTOR
Jonny Trained at The Drama Centre London & Boris Shukin Vahktangov Institute, Moscow. He is the co-founder of Lost In Transit and has extensive experience across theatre and screen including Black Mirror for Netflix & Sky One’s Brassic.
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WRITER
Peter has been writing professionally for television, radio and theatre for over thirty years. Currently, he is a member of the writing team for ITV’s Emmerdale.
Other television work includes Children’s Ward, Families, MI High, and Revelations as well as Big Meg Little Meg - a sitcom he co-created with Diane Whitely. In radio drama he has worked on The Archers, created the shows Men Of Intelligence and North East Of Eden, as well dramatizations of novels by E Nesbit, Giovanni Guareschi and Terry Pratchett. His adaptation of Nicholas Wilde’s Into The Dark won a Writer’s Guild (GB) award in 1997. In theatre, he is a founder member of Manchester’s JB Shorts to which he has contributed over twenty short plays. He co-wrote the musical-comedy Classic with Lindsay Williams and Louis Ashton-Butler (directed by Joyce Branagh) for Hope Mill Theatre, which went on to great success at the Edinburgh Fringe.
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PRODUCER
Alex has been producing live entertainment for over 16 years. He’s won multiple theatre awards as an artist and is the founding member of northern horror makers Thunder Road. He has worked with over 100 arts organisations across 5 different countries, and appeared in the first ever UK, Ireland & South Africa tour of War Horse, widely regarded as the most successful production in National Theatre history.
Producer credits include: It’s Not A Game (UK Tour); The Void (UK Tour & Watford Palace Theatre); Shock Horror (four UK Tours between 2022-2025); 1984 (Regional Tour and The Edge, Chorlton); The Body Snatcher (UK Tour and Harrogate Theatre); The Invisible Man, 20,000 Leagues Under The Sea, The Count Of Monte Cristo and Hyde (Harrogate Theatre).Awards include: A Manchester Evening News Theatre Award (Best Performance) and the Jane Horrocks Award (Outstanding Achievement).
Find out more at www.mistermoran.com
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COMPOSER & SOUND DESIGNER
Oliver Vibrans is an Ivor Novello award winning Composer, Producer and Sound Designer based in the UK. Oliver has composed music for the concert hall, theatre, film, art installations and radio.
Theatre credits include: The Three Sisters at Shakespeare’s Globe, Under Milkwood at Theatr Clwyd, The Walrus has a Right to Adventure at Liverpool Everyman, The Acts for CRIPtic Arts at the Barbican, Burnt at the Stake for Shakespeare’s Globe, Romeo and Juliet for Shakespeare North Playhouse, Duet for One, The Solid Life of Sugar Water for The Orange Tree, Richmond, A Leap in The Dark for The New Vic, The Secret Garden for Theatre Royal Bury St Edmunds, Oliver Twist for Leeds Playhouse and Ramps on the Moon, The Process for Bunker Theatre London, Rutherford & Sons for Sheffield Theatres, The Merchant of Venice for Stafford Shakespeare Festival, The Pitmen Painters for The New Vic, The Tempest for Royal Exchange, This is Not For You,Hurricane Protest Songs for Graeae, Chateau Ghoul,Strangers On A Train Set, Mr Darcy Loses the Plot, for LipService Theatre, Out of the Dark for Rose Theatre Kingston.
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LIGHTING & VISUAL FX DESIGNER
Andrew Crofts is a visual designer and technologist who works with lighting, video and interactive tech for theatre, dance and mixed-media companies.
As well as working with Lost In Transit, Andrew has worked with a range of other artists and companies including Imitating the Dog, Thunder Road, Jasmin Vardimon, Blast Theory, Every House Has A Door, Invisible Flock, Streetwise Opera, Geraldine Pilgrim Performance, Belarus Free Theatre and Spymonkey.
Theatre credits include: Homeward, War of the Worlds, All Change, Otherham, All Blood Runs Red, Frankenstein, LEAP, Follow Me Into, Macbeth, Dracula - The Untold Story, Dr Blood's Traveling Medicine Show, Night of the Living Dead - Remix, Heart Of Darkness, Nocturnes, Storm from Paradise (Imitating The Dog); Shock Horror, The Void (Thunder Road & Watford Palace Theatre); As I Am Naturally (Tania Camara); Blizzard (Emily Woof); Bring The Happy (Invisible Flock); Man on the Moon (Keisha Thompson); Simon Mole (The Great Big Dinosaur Show).
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SET & COSTUME DESIGNER
Kate Burnett MA is an award winning theatre designer, educator and curator of performance design. She has designed for UK regional, national and touring theatre companies, including Contact, the Library, Oldham Coliseum, Liverpool Everyman, and Sheffield Crucible theatres; also schools and community performance projects for orchestras, opera companies and art galleries. She was Reader in Theatre Design at Nottingham Trent University from 2007 – 2018.
Kate is a Trustee Director of the Society of British Theatre Designers (SBTD). She has co-curated 5 national exhibitions for the SBTD which have represented the UK at the Prague Quadrennial, winning international awards in 1995, 2003 and 2015, and been shown at the V&A Museum.
She is currently renovating a small Peak District Methodist chapel in Edale, for worship, and as a community arts venue and workspace.
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CO-CREATION PRODUCER
David Cartwright is a Sheffield-based artist, producer and engagement specialist with a passion for creating ambitious, socially engaged work. He has a proven track record of delivering impactful, large-scale creative programmes that address social injustice and promote equality, working across sectors including education, health, community and the arts. His practice centres on co-creation, collaboration and partnership building, and he is highly skilled in programme development, facilitation and cross-sector engagement.
David is the co-founder of Manic Chord Theatre, where he developed a wide range of new work, from festival performances and touring productions to digital projects and theatre for early years. His interdisciplinary practice responds to the contemporary world and reflects current social conversations.
Alongside his artistic work, David has held a number of producing and creative leadership roles, including Creative Producer for the Leeds International Piano Competition, Co-Creation Producer for LEEDS 2023, and Creative Health Connector in Doncaster, supporting people experiencing ill health to access creative opportunities.
As a freelancer, David works with schools, communities and organisations across the UK and internationally. He is also an associate artist with ISTA.
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TECHNICAL STAGE MANAGER
Sabine is a Manchester-based stage manager and a graduate of the University of Salford. She has worked with a range of theatre companies, including Colour the Clouds, Inkbrew Productions, HER Productions, Dangerous to Know, Pai Productions, and Divided Culture Co.
Known for her professionalism, attention to detail, and strong leadership, she ensures the smooth running of every production. Recent credits include Company Stage Manager for Believe! The Polar Express Experience and Stage Manager for Private Lives by Noël Coward (HER Productions).
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MARKETING MANAGER
Paris Rogers is a Manchester-based producer and writer working across theatre, television and film. She spent three years working with the BBC in development, supporting projects from concept through to pitch.
She is currently developing a television series with Saffron Cherry Productions and recently produced the short film Through The Eyes of Bairns, now entering festival submissions.
Paris has produced multiple theatre productions, including JB Shorts, and co-runs Päi Productions, where she champions accessible, female-led and regionally rooted work. They have two plays coming up at The Edge, Mothers and Daughters and Lions Vs Elephants. She is also producing a musical that is about to be launched called, The Rise. -
ASSISTANT PRODUCER
Tiffany is a Manchester-based playwright and producer, and a graduate of Pai Productions’ Pai Academy. She has worked as an assistant producer on The Home We Made at HOME and is currently working on Mothers & Daughters at The Edge.
As a playwright, her debut play I’m Gonna Jump was longlisted for the Bruntwood Playwriting Prize before being produced at the Greater Manchester Fringe Festival, where it received a five-star review and a nomination for Oldham Coliseum’s Pick of the Fringe. She has since been commissioned by Popelei Theatre, 53Two, and the Arden School of Theatre. Her spoken word piece Love Speak was broadcast on BBC Radio Manchester as part of BBC Upload. She was recently awarded DYCP funding to develop her full-length play Now That’s What I Call…The Afterlife.
Tiffany is excited to work with Lost in Transit to bring an iconic and thought-provoking piece to the stage, whilst developing her practice as an assistant producer.
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EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR
Roger is an established theatre director who has directed many award winning productions for regional theatres, national tours and in the West End.
Notable productions include Sondheim's Into the Woods, Assassins (Manchester Library Theatre); the European premiere of William Finn's March of the Falsettos (West End); Driving Miss Daisy (tour); Laughter on the 23rd Floor (West End with Gene Wilder, nominated for an Olivier Award, also national tour). Sophisticated Ladies (West End); Maltby and Shire's Closer Than Ever, and Baby (national tour); Calendar Girls (both the play and musical), and The Full Monty. He also revived his award-winning production of The Go-Between in the West End starring Michael Crawford. Recently he directed Jonathan Pie: Heroes & Villains on a national tour and in the West End. This last Christmas he directed an immersive experience in Manchester: Believe! The Polar Express.
He is hugely grateful to be a part of the company Lost in Transit.
This is not history.
This is right now.
1984 has never felt more urgently relevant. In an age of surveillance, misinformation, and the erosion of truth, this is a story that demands to be told live - viscerally and collectively. Our take on Winston's story aims to grip audiences from the first moment, delivering bold, provocative storytelling that supports regional theatre and keeps conversations going long after audiences have left.
What did you think?
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