OK, so I decided to swing for the fences and ask the Orwell Estate for its permission to write a Mortal Fools show based on the novel 1984.

For fans of copyright, you probably know that the estate famously denied David Bowie’s request in 1974 (he subsequently issued a few songs not quite based on the story on his Diamond Dogs album, such as 1984 and Big Brother).

Frankly, I don’t know what to make of my chances. On one hand, the copyright has already expired in the UK and Canada, so if I lived there I could write the music set with no permission whatsoever. But U.S. copyright laws extend out to 2039 (I think?), so maybe the estate might want to keep the lid on musical interpretation (or maybe ask for a fee that my made-for-making-no-money project can’t pay).

It would be fun, though, to bring Orwell’s prescient vision to life in one of our Mortal Fools sets. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to imagine Big Brother as AI, not to mention living in a world purposefully saturated with anger and distrust.

1984 is a text for our times. I hope I get the chance to present it anew to an audience.