Theatre
Review
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A Clockwork Orange - OFS A night of real horrorshow ultraviolence could be yours, oh brothers. A Clockwork Orange is playing at the Old Fire Station and is one of the more ambitious student productions around. The tale of Alex Delarge, gang leader, speaker of futuristic slang, is an extreme and often gruesome tale. His life of unrepentant violence and his transformation into guinea pig of the government, from perpetrator to victim, is one of the most provocative of stories. So, 'What's it going to be then, eh?' How can an student production live up to the intoxicating book by Anthony Burgess and one of the most influential cult movies, which had the added cool of having only been available on pirate video for many years? This production was full of ideas and surprises. From the detail of having Action Man figures as cod-pieces, to illustrating the terrifying contemporary relevance of the story through 'Big Brother' coverage of Alex's treatment, the style was sure to make the audience sit up and listen. It also helped that the cast was very strong, particularly Alex, played by Andy Dawson who quite often carried scenes along with his energy and charisma, bravely stepping into the shoes of the fantastic Malcolm MacDowell, and, indeed, choosing to use the same accent. An ambitious attempt to incorporate film into the live proceedings also served the story well. This was particularly true in the scenes of extreme violence, where stage can fail to have any impact on an audience used to seeing extreme close up brutality on our TV screens. The explicit rape scene, the crux of the story, and which drew so much reaction from the film's audience, was dealt with deftly and with skill. Pre-recorded stills on the large screen above the stage hinted at the explicit nature of the scene, whilst the actors held their own positions on the stage, lit for a few seconds at a time. A scene that could so easily been a clumsy embarrassment was pulled off well, and stood the rest of the play in good stead. The fight scenes were also well delivered and tightly choreographed - crucial as the play had so many - and it looked like the cast were genuinely having fun. Of course, one of the gifts of the book is to have Alex obsessed with the music of 'Ludwig Van' and the counterpoint the music brings to the action of 'ultraviolence' is not lost in this production. The euphoria of Beethoven's 9th Symphony, coupled with the extreme emotions and reactions it provokes in Alex, is perfect in provoking unease in any audience. For much of the play there is a confusion of loyalties, as it is made absolutely clear that no-one is innocent, yet no-one is truly guilty either. Beautiful music accompanying ugly actions goes against protocol, as does much of this story. A student production with so many ambitious ideas is bound to have glitches. The use of film clips throughout the piece did sometimes distract from the real action on stage - annoying when the film seemed to be out of sequence with the action, or when clips were poor quality or even irrelevant. Badly edited clips of Hitler interspersed with scenes from The Lion King repeated ad nauseum only proved irritating, rather than mood enhancing. The production could also have done with more brutal editing, as, by sticking closely to the book, it is far too long, and the odd scene loses the pulsing energy required to sustain the huge character of Alex and his ultraviolence. As a result, the immediacy and hormone-filled energy of the piece was sometimes lost. Overall, however, this ambitious project works well. Fans of the book and the film should go along, to remind themselves about the complexity of the story. Is it a social commentary, a political manifesto, a black comedy? Well, it is all of these and more, and this production deals admirably with the challenges the story brings. Go and viddy Alex and his droogs, my brothers. It's real hororshow. Alison Yates |