Review: 1984, Fringe 2025

I attended 1984 at Above, Pleasance Courtyard on 11/08/25. This was a production by Box Tale Soup and was their version of the classic George Orwell story brought to Edinburgh Fringe with their unique use of puppetry to tell the story.

It is a very, very long time since I read 1984 so I was keen to watch this adaptation.

The audience

The show is advertised as suitable for 12+ due to the themes of the classic book  including aspects of manipulation, control, misinformation and torture.

I took my 14-year-old son along with me as although he wasn’t familiar with the book, I thought he would find the dystopian themes quite interesting.

I thought it was age appropriate for him. I expected to see some other teenagers and younger adults in the audience but at the showing we attending it was primarily older adults.

The vibe

As we waited for it to begin we noted just a few props sitting on the stage – two large trunk boxes and some shadowy figures lined up at the back.

There were also a couple of props with lights on. Music was playing as the audience awaited, it was slightly sinister music to cleverly help set the atmosphere.

The show

The show brought the George Orwell novel to life, I recognised many parts from the original book and the show reminded me how the storyline concludes. There were three actors – one women and two men – who played the key characters and each played both puppet roles and human roles. It was accompanied by various music, smoke at appropriate parts which added to the atmosphere, and regular announcements by Big Brother. 

The constant movement of some of the props was a bit distracting but I realise this was to create the illusion of different settings as the story progressed through different scenes.

My son who wasn’t familiar with the book found it slightly tricky to follow some parts. 

He found the mix of puppet roles and human roles a little confusing but said afterwards he had wondered if the human roles represented the true feelings of each character while the puppets were the masked view pretending to conform, so he found it quite thought provoking and had understood the general premise.

The show concluded with a scene set inside the infamous Room 101.

Overall

While 1984 covered some uncomfortable and sensitive issues, in line with the classic book of course, overall this production was very well done and memorable. I would recommend this show particularly to people who have read and enjoyed the original book. 

Aside note but I also liked the fact that Box Tale’s Soup are very environmentally conscious, recycling and reusing all of their props and they don’t print paper flyers.