SHAWN CONNER ORWELL’S SOCIAL SATIRE REVISITED IN TRUMP ERA
George Orwell’s name is synonymous with Animal Farm and Nineteen Eighty- Four, two works of speculative fiction that have become cultural memes. The English author, born Eric Blair, is also known for his non- fiction, including essays like Shooting an Elephant and books such as Down and Out in Paris and London.
But the author rarely gets credit for his comic/ realist novels. In books like his 1936 dark comedy Keep the Aspidistra Flying, Orwell demonstrates a keen eye for middle- class mores and flawed characters.
Coming Up for Air is from that school. In the 1939 novel, and the theatre adaptation by English- born Leslie Mildiner, a man named George Bowling returns to his childhood home, only to find it overrun and ruined by the forces of capitalism. Meanwhile, the threat of war looms.
“There’s some bleak stuff in it,” said Mildiner, an Orwell fan.
“But it’s just as much a comedy of manners, in the idea of the Everyman who feels as though he’s being stifled. He feels like a canary in a coal mine.”
Mildiner’s adaptation dates back 10 years. Victoria’s Belfrey Theatre mounted it then, followed by the Cultch.
For the coming remount, Mildiner says that he has “edited and streamlined the story to make it more relevant today. In the book, he ( Bowling) rails against things like fast- food joints, and urbanization and gentrification, and the environment.”
There’s even an establishment “that’s like McDonald’s, and he describes its emphasis on shininess and sleekness, and not comfort. Then he goes to the village of his childhood and trees have been knocked down and the river is polluted. It could be written today. We emphasized that more in this production.”
Mildiner is directing and producing. Veteran Vancouver stage and screen actor Bernard Cuffling, who played the role in its first productions, is back as Bowling.
In seeking to return to an idyl-
lic childhood, Bowling’s quest could be seen as echoing Donald Trump’s imprecations to Make America Great Again. But the play is relevant in the current political climate for other reasons.
“The character sees the rise of oligarchies and totalitarianism,” Mildiner said. “He’s not very articulate, but he sees people having their individual rights whittled away.
“And now there’s all this talk of militaristic action. In the book, you have this guy George Bowling talking about how war is coming. He ( Bowling) says, ‘ There’s something coming, we don’t know what it is, but it’s going to be something terrible.’
“And yet he feels he has no power to change anything. He goes back and forth from being enraged and afraid to being disinterested. When we first did the show, it seemed to smack of a certain truth in the modern age. But that’s particularly true now, under Donald Trump.”
Orwell’s cache has spiked, thanks to the continued relevance of 1984, especially. Coming Up for Air is an opportunity for audiences who might only know his more famous work to get to know another side of the author.
“When we first did the show, I thought, ‘ Well, who’s going to come and see this? I like it, and Bernard likes it. Some old British codgers might like it.’ Of course, there is this older crowd that knows Orwell.
“But we had a lot of young students come in, because we also performed the play up at UBC. Of course, they study Orwell. So it is multi- generational.
“Well, I wouldn’t bring little kids. It’s a bit long. But it’s for teens upwards.”