1984 stage adaptation to tour this summer

George Orwell’s classic gets a new adaptation

A new stage adaptation of 1984 by George Orwell will headline the autumn season at the Citizens Theatre ahead of a Scottish tour.

Chris Hannan’s adaptation is a co-production between the Citizens Theatre, Dundee Rep Theatre and The Royal Lyceum Theatre Edinburgh, and will be directed by the Citizens Theatre’s artistic director Dominic Hill.

The production will preview in Glasgow from 29 August 2026, with a world premiere scheduled for 3 September 2026, before touring to Dundee, Aberdeen and Edinburgh. Further casting and creative team details are yet to be announced.

Hannan has previously adapted literary works for the stage including Crime and Punishment, which premiered at the Citizens Theatre in 2013, as well as The Iliad.

Hill explained today: “I am thrilled to be working once again with Chris Hannan. His version of Crime and Punishment for the Citz proved once again that he is one of Scotland’s finest playwrights but also has a great talent at making works of prose feel like immediate, living drama for the stage. His new adaptation of Orwell’s chilling classic is equally brilliant.

“We live in a world that is increasingly called ‘Orwellian’; Chris’s adaptation takes us back to the original story – an appeal for truth, love and moral courage within a system designed to crush. It is a classic story, told for our times, and I can’t wait for audiences across Scotland to experience it later this year.”

Orwell wrote much of 1984 while living on the Scottish island of Jura and completed the novel while receiving medical treatment in Scotland, including time at Hairmyres Hospital in East Kilbride during the later stages of his illness. The novel was first published in 1949 and is widely regarded as one of the defining works of the twentieth century.

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