Cameron Hindrum's original play 101 shows George Orwell's final years

After he returned from World War II, the writer channelled his horror into literary clarity through Animal Farm. But in the afterglow of the book's critical and commercial success, Orwell's beloved wife died unexpectedly, and he was left to raise their adopted son alone.

After a period of erratic behaviour he retreated to the Scottish island of Jura. There, he scratched around in the garden, did a lot of walking, and nearly died in a boating disaster. Oh, and wrote 1984.

This latter period in Orwell's life is the subject of a new play written by Launceston's Cameron Hindrum. Called 101, the 90-minute production is the result of three years of writing and re-writing, and a rigorous script development process through professional theatre company Blue Cow Theatre.

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Hindrum said there were many time periods in Orwell's life from which one could extract fascinating material - poverty in London and Paris, revolutionary war in Spain. But it was his last few years that told the most simple, human story.

"It was his most creative period," Hindrum said.

"Animal Farm was the first book that he wrote - he says - with the full knowledge of combining his political ideas with literary techniques. He was coming into a really interesting period of his life creatively.

"But what interested me dramatically, I suppose, was the idea of a man caught almost in the eye of a storm: he's got his grief to deal with, having lost his wife, and he's having to raise a boy. He's having to meet everyone's demands in them wanting him to get the next book out. And underneath all that was the fact that his health was declining, he was getting sicker and sicker with tuberculosis which is eventually what claimed him.

"It was a really traumatic but creative period."

Actress Kerri Gay said they had been directed to present the emotionally fraught events "as if it was an adventure".

"It's so complex and beautiful and poetic - it's beautiful writing," she said.

"It's not even just about Orwell, it's about the relationship between a father and son. In terms of atmosphere, it's quite captivating. There's laugh out loud moments, and moments that make you tear up. It's a fierce, poetic, short play."