Only One Question for... Headlong actor Matthew Spencer, who plays the diary-writing rebel Winston Smith, Comrade 6079, in George Orwell's 1984 at York Theatre Royal this week.

What is the message of George Orwell's vision of the future, 1984, in 2014, Matthew?

"It was written in 1948 about a fictional 1984, and here we are in 2014 performing it with Orwell's appendix that refers to it in the past, speaking from the future in 2050. One of the questions we were looking at in rehearsals was why is 1984 still relevant? What it presents is a vision of the future that remains a vision of the future whenever you read it or present it on stage, so it always feels like a world that's just around the corner.

"It's the feeling that it creates, not whether Orwell was accurate about surveillance. One question it does throw up is what would we prefer? if you don't want what you write to be read under surveillance, you're saying. 'OK, every so often plots will happen, but that's part of the price of my keeping my privacy', so where do you find the balance?

"What Robert and Duncan (co-directors and adaptors Robert Icke and Duncan Macmillan) have done really well is throw out these question again, rather than look to come up with any answers."

Headlong, Nottingham Playhouse and the Almeida Theatre's touring production of 1984 runs at York Theatre Royal until Saturday; performances at 2pm and 7.30pm today, 7.30pm tomorrow and 2.30pm, 7.30pm, Saturday. Box office: 01904 623568 or at yorktheatreroyal.co.uk