By Aidan Elliott, director

Over the summer the Observer newspaper ran a series of reports on the "nanny state."

It illustrated the many ways in which both the government and corporate companies monitor and record significant amounts of our everyday activities – including our movements, phone calls, e-mails and payments.

This new production of 1984 is brutal, says its director

It became increasingly apparent, and indeed worrying, how very suddenly Orwell’s nightmarish vision of a totalitarian, monitoring state was fast becoming a reality.

These issues, and the public’s obsession with fly on-the-wall television programmes such as Big Brother and I’m a celebrity, motivated me to bring Orwell’s book back into the public eye.

I wanted to expose this phenomenon and the public’s obsessions through a theatre production.

Over the last few months I have set about acquiring an enthusiastic, skilled team who share my vision of bringing 1984 to the stage.

Theatre of brutality

I had no intentions to distort the book in any way – I planned to stay faithful to the author and present his work the way he set it down on paper.

Indeed, it would be a rather arrogant decision to attempt to better Orwell’s masterpiece.

The production will be dark, tense and in many parts shocking – children under 12, and those with a nervous disposition, should stay away.