I vaguely remember having to read the George Orwell novel, “1984” at some point in high school.

At the time, no one would have thought it anything more than a bit of dystopian gloom-fantasies from Orwell.

Fast forward a bit shy of 70 years since the book was first published, and it seems to be gaining new appreciation.

The New York Times reports:

The British producer Sonia Friedman and the American producer Scott Rudin said on Thursday night that they plan to bring a stage adaptation of “1984,” a George Orwell novel published in 1949, to Broadway starting in June. The adaptation was created by Robert Icke and Duncan Macmillan and was previously staged multiple times in Britain, where it was produced by Headlong, Nottingham Playhouse and the Almeida Theater. In a review of a production at the Playhouse Theater in the West End in 2014, Ben Brantley, the chief theater critic of The New York Times, described it as “willfully assaultive.”

So why all the fuss over a 68-year old novel, now? If I remember correctly, there was actually a movie version of “1984” released in – when else – 1984, starring John Hurt and Richard Burton. There may have been an earlier version, which only goes to prove that this notion of “thought crimes” and “Big Brother” has been around for a long time.

Now, however, it seems that the election of Donald Trump and Trump’s first several weeks in office have led to a renewed interest, all the way around.

As of last Friday, “1984” (the book) was #2 on Amazon’s best seller list, and eventually sold out of copies.

The Broadway version is set to debut on June 22, 2017.

So should we be thanking Trump or… something else?

Let’s try to be reasonable. The man is a dolt, but he’s got some solid people working in his administration.

When he starts outlawing diaries, we’ll worry.

In the meantime, check out the trailer for the 1984 movie: