Andrew Garfield, Cynthia Erivo, Andrew Scott, and Tom Hardy are just a few of the celebrity voice actors in the new Audible Original adaptation of “George Orwell’s 1984.” But this adaptation is unique in that it is audio-only — not unlike a radio play. In doing so, writer Joe White had to translate the novel, which was written from a third-person perspective, and put the audience completely into Winston’s POV. And the creative team needed to rely purely on audio to do all the world-building, without the advantages of visuals or an omniscient narrator. But, as it turns out, the experience came quite naturally for director Destiny Ekaragha.

“It wasn't as different as I thought it was going to be, actually… It is pure directing, in a way. Because when you're directing on set, you have to consider everything. The color of the curtains, the clouds, and the sky. Everything. Which is great and amazing. But here, it was just pure, one-on-one with the actor, which is my favorite part of my job. Directing actors. So I was like, wait, this is nice. I really like this. I'm not thinking about anything else. I really love that.”

—Destiny Ekaragha, Director, “George Orwell’s 1984”

You can experience “George Orwell’s 1984” on Audible in Dolby Atmos®, which fully immerses the listener into this chilling, dystopian world.

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You can also check out the video for this episode.

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197 - The Star-Studded Audio Dramatization of George Orwell’s 1984