1984

Box Tale Soup are bringing their puppetry adaptation of George Orwell's 1984 to Harrogate Theatre on Wednesday 17 February 2027. It's a puppetry take on the dystopian classic, with the year set in 1984, and the voices are a bit of a draw: Sophie Aldred, Joanna Lumley and Simon Russell Beale, with Beale providing the voice of Big Brother.

Box Tale Soup are known for their ingenious sets and slick storytelling, and here the puppetry works as a metaphor for Orwell's vision of power and control. It's not just a retelling of the plot; the way they use puppets to represent the characters and the state fits the book's themes of manipulation and surveillance. The production was an Official Sell Out Show at the 2025 Edinburgh Fringe, where critics called it a triumph, an incredible feat of storytelling and a thought-provoking piece of theatre.

If you've never seen them before, they're a company that leans into the visual and the tactile, so seeing 1984 through puppets rather than a traditional cast changes the whole feel of the story. It's a well-regarded production that's already played to full houses, and now it's coming to Harrogate.

It runs from 7:30pm to 9:10pm at Harrogate Theatre in the Heart of Harrogate. Tickets are £22 standard and £15 concession.