Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10
A Clockwork Orange, Everyman Theatre, Liverpool. Photograph used with kind permission by Marc Brenner and the Everyman Theatre.
Cast: George Caple, Nadia Anim, Richard Bremmer, Nathan McMullen, Phil Rayner, Zelina Rebeiro, Keddy Sutton, Liam Tobin.
Musician: Peter Mitchell.
Every generation that inhabited the 20th Century and which tried with desperation to throw off the shackles of the shadow of the Victorian era, faced the same daunting task of being considered an oddity, a danger, a threat to the well being of the society that it had been indoctrinated down to its core to support. It could be argued that the well names Generation X of the 60s and 70s fared better in their stand to be different, racked as they were, and remain, with the feelings of alienation, hostility, isolation and distance. They were the true memories of A Clockwork Orange with mass appeal, creatures of the Counter Culture, a new language spawned in the underground and they could terrify the so called Baby Boomers and Pre War sensibilities down to its very foundations.
Nick Bagnall returns to the directing helm at the Everyman Theatre to capture the mood of the ultra violence, dystopian inward excess felt by the young Droogs and their de facto leader, Alex. It is a return in which it would be hard to believe that the writer of both the original book and the play, Anthony Burgess, would disapprove of, in truth he would surely commend everything about this particular production and one that sets new light upon the writer’s work of 1985, or the trilogy encompassing Time For A Tiger, The Enemy In The Blanket and Beds In The East.
Whether in the absorbing nature of the experimental fashion of Alex’s so called rehabilitation, the stirring and often disturbing music supplied beautifully by Peter Mitchell, the stark contrast in the apparel of the Droogs to their surroundings of dark and ultra violets of lighting coerced from the ether with superb panache by designer Kay Haynes or the acting, to which much must be said in praise of George Caple as the teenager thrust into the limelight of the thrill of violence, death and resulting torture.
Following on from his sublime performance as Romeo in last year’s Everyman Theatre Company production of Romeo And Julius, this dedication to the part was one that was both riveting and unyielding, on stage throughout, including the interval, this young actor has proved himself enormously over the course of the last two years.
With tremendous support from Nathan McMullen, Richard Bremmer on exceptional form, Keddy Sutton bringing her wonderful sense of humour into the role and Liam Tobin capturing the despair of the previous generation at what they have sowed and reaped, A Clockwork Orange is beyond what you could hope for; for those that have read the novel or faced down the film with relish, Nick Bagnall’s directing of this punch driven, song induced story and understandable resonance to today’s society is an apt and frighteningly beautiful tale, one that really invests in capturing one of the most enlightening and sensational books of the 20th Century.
Ian D. Hall