One-man-shows based on Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451

Maarten Metzelaar, Staff Writer

A number of performances were recently held in Elgin Community College’s Spartan auditorium, including an introduction by speaker Chris Snock. A one man show, based on excerpts from Ray Bradbury’s classic dystopian novel Fahrenheit 451, was performed by actor Rich Orlow in the form of speeches, as well as a post-performance discussion from the audience.

Steve Duchrow, the director of the Art’s center, has worked at ECC to bring in many different theatrical acts to ECC, basically organizing events, from multiple theatrical agencies spanning from domestic acts to international ones.  His aforementioned recent work being with speaker Chris Snock and Rich Orlow, the creative team that were responsible for the number of performances held.

In total, six mini performances and workshops were held; five being held at the school itself, one being held at the Gail Borden Library located in Elgin, IL.  This was followed by one larger final performance and discussion, held at ECC.

In total, a little over 10 professors teaching classes in Philosophy, political science, human development and literature showed up with their students for the performances.  The headcount was at approximately 500 attendees, in total.

The prestigious acting company has been touring from state to state running the shows; this being the ninth consecutive year that this company has held performances at ECC. The shows typically included a speech by Chris Snock, following a one-man-show-styled performance by Rich Orlow.  A final discussion with the audience was to follow. 

The aforementioned discussions were typically based around the book’s central themes of censorship,  whether or not it is ethical, and what place it holds in society.  A focus was brought to the advent of new technology and its impact on privacy and the natural problems that arise from censorship in this era.

Fahrenheit 451 was a dystopian novel released in 1953, written by Ray Bradbury.  The novel is set in a future America where books have been outlawed, and “firemen” are tasked with burning said-books.

As a writer staunchly opposed to the idea of censorship, Ray Bradbury wrote Fahrenheit 451 as his vision of a society that took censorship to a mass level.  In a world where free information is censored, our main character Guy Montag is tasked with burning all the literature he is able to “free” society from.

Like with human nature, Guy Montag became curious: he began reading the books he was tasked with burning.  Living in constant fear and dread, this government worker finds solace only in the very thing he must destroy.

The inevitable reality of widespread censorship, whether attempted by government, corporations or the common person, is still extremely relevant in today’s technology-driven world.  The novel, Fahrenheit 451, stands as a warning to the population to stay ever vigilant of the intellectual threat of censorship.  As students, we have the right to uncensored information, and the responsibility to obtain it, and fight for free speech.