Bright, pale white and stark, dark black.

These were the only two colors present on the stage of Eisenhower Auditorium representing the world of George Orwell's 1984, presented by the L.A. based touring company, The Actors' Gang.

Winston Smith, the bound prisoner, was the lone white figure in the center of a dark stage, interrogated by his captors, members of Big Brother's inner party.

At first I was skeptical of how Orwell's distopic view of the future was going to be conveyed to the audience without confusing everyone or changing Orwell's original story, but this adaptation by Micheal Gene Sulivan stayed true to the novel.

I have read Orwell's novel and could easily follow the plot, but I wondered if it would be hard to follow without any prior knowledge. Once I spoke to a few audience members, their reaction seemed positive.

"I liked it. I've never read it before, but I can get the gist of it," said Natalie Lightfoot-Solomon(sophomore-microbiology).

A few students, including Lightfoot-Solomon, were required to attend for a class and seemed pleasantly surprised.

Mike Gentile(sophomore-finance) said he and his friend "Sparknoted" the story beforehand.

"If we didn't have any background knowledge it would have been hard to follow," he said.

The story of 1984 portrays a world where Big Brother, the omnipotent head of the government, is always watching. In the first part of the novel version, Winston (played by Cameron Dye), begins his devious thoughts and deeds against the government. He purchases a small glass paperweight in an antique shop and discovers Julia (played by Shana Sosin), his co-worker who also harbors thoughts against the government while her actions speak of a perfect party member. They rent a room above the antique shop, believing that they are totally alone, and have an affair -- an ultimate sin against the oppressive government. In the second part of the novel, Julia and Winston are found, captured and separately tortured. The play follows Winston's interrogation.

An ominous voice asked Winston to recall his memories while four dark-suited party members acted out entries from Winston's diary.

Many scenes of the play were extremely intense, including Wintston's sexual encounters with Juila. The program warned of adult themes and nudity, which are extremely prevalent in the novel, but I think they might have been a shock to those who were unfamiliar with the story.

"They needed to put an R-rating on it. That surprised me," said Lance Wexler (freshman-toxicology).

Once I caught on to the styling of the narration, it was as if the characters were acting out a play within the play.

I thought the entire play was full of dark and extreme emotions.

"We were in the front row. It was really intense," said Ashley Tarbet (graduate-English)

Winston experiences extreme pain, love, hope and despair, all while being chained to the floor and painfully electrocuted. The audience laughed during a few of lines, but I couldn't tell if the laughter was appropriate or not. The emotions in the story needed the release of laughter, but I was never sure whether to join in or not.

In the end, Big Brother despairingly won over Winston's mind. He finally betrayed Juila and admitted that he loved Big Brother.

The play ended as intensely as it began with the sounds of Rage Against the Machine ironically blasting the triumph of the Party over Winston.

"[It was a] really strong, emotional thing," said John Stevenson (freshman-political science). "I've read the book a couple of times and I think it captured the emotion and intent of George Orwell."