Big Brother is watching you.

With those words, George Orwell’s “1984” embodies the ideas of government control over society.

The Center for the Arts brought The Actors’ Gang, a Los Angeles-based group founded in 1981 and directed by Academy Award-winning actor Tim Robbins, to Northeastern Friday and Saturday to perform the first-ever stage adaptation of the book. The two Northeastern shows marked the start of The Actors’ Gang’s national tour.

In a talk-back after the play, the actors said the play has a significant meaning under the current Bush administration. They said they researched wire-tapping, the Patriot Act and CIA interrogation techniques in preparation for their roles.

The novel follows the protagonist Winston Smith through three parts. The first part describes the world of 1984. The second is about the love affair between two characters, Winston and Julia. The third is about Winston’s torture and “re-education” at the hands of Big Brother within the Ministry of Love.

Unlike the novel’s straightforward narration, The Actor’s Gang’s adaptation used post-modern techniques and set the entire play within an interrogation room in the Ministry of Love.

The play also introduced four new characters not in the book who acted out scenes from Winston’s memory, a diary he kept and his dreams and fantasies as a method of psychological torture.

“I like the form it’s taking with the interrogation,” said middler history major Dan Soszynski.

Others noticed that some aspects of the play strayed from Orwell’s tone.

“I feel like it doesn’t really capture the mood,” said middler economics major Stacy Lapteva. “The setting of the stage is really dismal, but the tone of the book is eerie, not dismal.”

The stage was sparse. The scene was a concrete torture chamber with benches along the walls. Three windows were used by a fifth character, O’Brian, to direct questions and the often repeated mantra “you must be precise” to Winston and his interrogators.

Some students felt the set played well into the story.

“I like the set design because it’s a cold aesthetic,” Soszynski said.

In the talk-back, the actors spoke about the set. In designing it, they wanted to “make it claustrophobic for the audience so they can feel the intensity.”

“Having O’Brian speak to the audience like some interrogation theater – I love that,” said actor V.J. Foster, who played 3rd Party Member and Syme.

By setting the scene solely in an interrogation room and using the telling of the story as a torture technique, the adaptation focused primarily on the theme of torture and imprisonment.

“I think [the themes were] correct,” Lapteva said. “I think it’s what the book had in mind – rebellion against propriety.”

Orwell’s original novel ended with Winston meeting Julia in a caf’eacute; some months after their re-educations. He feels nothing for her, only love for Big Brother.

Unlike the novel, the play adaptation left the audience with some optimism. The interrogators, by acting out Winston’s memories, felt emotion for the first time.

“We wanted to leave a little splinter of hope at the end with the interrogators,” said actor Kaili Hollister, who played 2nd Party Member and Julia.

This is the third year in a row the Actors’ Gang has performed at Northeastern. In past years, the group performed “Embedded,” “The Exonerated” and “The Guys.”

“We bring them back because we think their plays are meaningful,” said Denise Carrington, spokesperson for the Center for the Arts. She said the center thinks theatre is a platform to express views on contemporary topics.

Overall, many students said they enjoyed the play.

“For someone who hasn’t read the book, it’s good … [because] full pieces of text of the book are being used as dialog, so I don”t feel like I’m missing anything,” Soszynski said.

Lapteva said she was disappointed with an omission from the play.

“I was hoping to see Big Brother,” she said.

Others said the novel’s influence is universal.

Junior theatre major Matthew Zahnzinger said it was a “very original adaptation.”

“Everybody reads ‘1984,’ whether for high school or pleasure,” he said. “I think the big thing is that it’s ‘1984.’ It’s one of the most prominent pieces of literature taught in schools today.”