A Real Horrorshow Production

A last minute decision, I traveled to East Stratford today to catch the closing night production of "A Clockwork Orange" at the Theatre Royal. I had read a review that said this production was better than the movie, which I've never seen, and decided to see what all the fuss was about. 

Stratford is where many of the new facilities for the Olympics are being built so it has a huge new train station showcasing the wonders of modern architecture with sharp angles of glass and steel, playing in harmony with the gigantic Westfield shopping mall, also a recent addition to the area. The Theatre Royal is an easy walk from the station and is a total contrast. It's a lovely small jewel box theater, all rococo and red draperies. 

This production was staged with the performance space a small strip between two sets of inward facing seats. The set was four angled platforms that would transform into all the extra scenery needed. The platforms and the whole floor had a shiny orange surface, while everything else was black. The angled swaths of orange echoed the aesthetic in the advertising posters - a 30's movie ad cum propaganda poster in stark black and orange. The rest of the set was black. Colored florescent lights on the platform gave the whole area a very "Bladerunner" feeling. I was sitting just outside the proscenium arch, a position that gave the uncanny impression of sitting inside a movie screen, about to watch the audience watch a show. 

There were two big surprises with this show. This first was that I had only remembered about half the book. I forgot the part after Alex was put in jail, which is sad because, really, that's the point of the book, isn't it? The other big surprise was that this show was a musical. 

I couldn't decide if the music worked or not. There was a small jazz combo that provided the background music was enjoyable to listen to, but often the songs seemed out of place. Singing, dancing gangs only work in West Side Story, and having a very modern gang (they attacked wearing Obama masks) jumping around to jazz and blues inspired music often pulled me out of the story. 

On the other hand, "A Clockwork Orange" is such an internal story and for it to work as a play the audience needs to know what's going on in Alex's head. Music is often a good way to achieve this. The actor playing Alex was great at the spoken-word poetry that his character pulled out in the script and I would have liked to see more of that in place of the singing. "A Clockwork Orange" has a language all its own and the spoken-word and occasional rap-style singing of the other boys worked with the slang vocabulary they all use.

Fans of the book or movie know that "horrorshow," in Alex's slang, means excellent, which is appropriate for this production. The actors and musicians were very talented and the ensemble cast and minimal set really focused the attention on Alex's internal struggles. This is just the kind of good, small theater I want to find more of in London.