A new stage adaptation of George Orwell’s 1984 will premiere at Glasgow’s Citizens Theatre this autumn before touring across Scotland. The production, adapted by Chris Hannan and directed by Dominic Hill, promises a timely retelling of Orwell’s classic dystopian novel.

The adaptation of 1984 will open with previews at the Citizens Theatre in Glasgow from 29 August 2026, followed by its official world premiere on 3 September 2026. After its initial run, the production will tour to Dundee, Aberdeen and Edinburgh, forming a co-production between the Citizens Theatre, Dundee Rep Theatre and The Royal Lyceum Theatre Edinburgh. Further casting and creative team details remain to be confirmed.

Chris Hannan, who has previously adapted literary works such as Crime and Punishment (premiered at the Citizens Theatre in 2013) and The Iliad, has crafted the new script. Dominic Hill, the Citizens Theatre’s artistic director and the director of the production, praised Hannan’s skill at translating prose for the stage. Hill said Hannan “is one of Scotland’s finest playwrights” and described the adaptation as “equally brilliant” in bringing Orwell’s chilling classic to life.

Hill also noted the contemporary relevance of 1984’s themes, remarking that “We live in a world that is increasingly called ‘Orwellian’” and that Hannan’s version returns “to the original story – an appeal for truth, love and moral courage within a system designed to crush.”

George Orwell wrote much of 1984 while living on the Scottish island of Jura and completed the novel during medical treatment in Scotland, including time at Hairmyres Hospital in East Kilbride. The novel, first published in 1949, is regarded as one of the defining works of the twentieth century.

This upcoming adaptation joins a lineage of stage works aiming to interrogate Orwell’s dystopia in contemporary contexts, with the Scottish tour allowing wider audiences to engage with the novel’s enduring questions of power and resistance within a theatrical framework.