It was 1949—four years after the German Third Reich surrendered, and the year Joseph Stalin turned 70—that saw the publication of George Orwell’s 1984, which envisioned a ruthless authoritarian future. Seventy-five years on, his chilling narrative is as unsettling as ever. The story follows Winston Smith, an ordinary citizen with a secret: he despises the government and dreams of rebellion. Winston dares not voice his opinions, but he records them in a diary, a forbidden act. His defiance grows when he begins an affair with a colleague named Julia; together they discover a covert resistance group called the Brotherhood. But is truth a match for Big Brother and the Thought Police—concepts prescient on the part of Orwell? Ryan Craig’s new theatrical adaptation of the novel, directed by Lindsay Posner, recreates that journey into the cult of personality and “alternative facts.” —Jeanne Malle