A Clockwork Orange presented by Scena at H Street Playhouse

A Clockwork Orange

H Street Playhouse
1365 H Street NE Washington

Alex and his vicious teenage gang revel in horrific violence, mugging and gang rape. Alex - the ringleader-also revels in the music of Beethoven. When a drug-fueled night of fun ends in murder, Alex is finally captured and locked up. He is given a choice – be brainwashed into good citizenship and set free, or face a lifetime imprisonment. Anthony Burgess' play with music, based on his on provocative 1962 novella of the same name, was first published in 1987.

Presented by Scena

Thru - Nov 18, 2012

Price: $25 - $35

Show Type: Drama

Running Time: 2 hrs with 1 intermission

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A Clockwork Orange Reviews

Average Rating based on 6 reviews

Highly Recommended
Recommended
Somewhat Recommended
Not Recommended

Washington Post - Somewhat Recommended

"...Anthony Burgess's 1962 novel and Stanley Kubrick's 1971 film adaptation can still raise goose bumps, pitting as they do in vividly surreal terms the prospect of uncontrolled youth violence suppressed by state-enforced mind control. Burgess's 1987 stage adaptation of his book, as revived by Scena's artistic director, Robert McNamara, seems more an exercise in style and ideas. It lacks the horror."

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- Jane Horwitz

DC Theater Arts - Highly Recommended

"... Brilliant, and disturbing, the plot follows Alex, the central character – a cynical and vicious fourteen year old – and his ‘Droogs’ gang of sadistic young punks. Nadsat – a mix of Russian and Cockney rhyming slang is the invented gangs speak Burgess created for this ultra society."

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- Syndney-Chanele Dawkins

Washington Examiner - Somewhat Recommended

"... October seems the perfect time of year for Anthony Burgess' theatrical adaptation of his dark and didactic "A Clockwork Orange." With all of the eerie and ominous goings-on and spine-tingling creepy-crawlies of the season, such a menacing little tale of a "dystopian near future" should fit right in with the strange chills of autumn and its howling, anthropomorphic winds. Yet Scena Theatre's new production falls flat.."

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- Jolene Munch Cardoza

MetroWeekly - Highly Recommended

"...By adapting his play to incorporate music, Burgess was also signaling that he wanted to be remembered as a composer. Before he wrote novels and plays, Burgess was a musical director in the British army. Beethoven, of course, is the patron saint of A Clockwork Orange - even the largely forgettable music Burgess composed for the play riffs off Ludwig van. As bombastic as it is, Beethoven's music is generally thought in today's world to be pleasing or, at least, positively stirring. But in A Clockwork Orange it's nearly as intimidating and downright dangerous as the heaviest of heavy metal."

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- Doug Rule

Washington City Paper - Recommended

"... Scena’s Theatre’s version uses Burgess’ music (mostly pieces of Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9, with lyrics) for a few numbers that neither detract from nor significantly facilitate the telling of Burgess’ tale—which remains powerful in any form, even if he didn’t think much of it. Anchored by an energetic, persuasive performance from Chris Stinson as Alex—the raping, murdering, charismatic 14-year-old sociopath subjected to experimental “Ludovico” therapy to instill in him a physical aversion to violence or lust—the show explores Burgesses’ existential riddle about whether good behavior matters if it isn’t the product of free will with reasonable alacrity, and without making you feel like you’re going to throw up right along with Alex. (While I admire the force and artistry of Kubrick’s movie, I’ve never had the stomach to sit through a complete second viewing.)"

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- Chris Klimek

DCTheatreScene - Recommended

Before there were teenage carjacks, drive by shootings, and institutional carnage broadcast on our television nightly, and before punk was co-opted into more of a fashion-and-music style while the dead-end originals roamed Britain’s public housing in destructive displays of their disaffection, there was the generation of Britain’s equally disaffected teddy boys.

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- Susan Galbraith

A Clockwork Orange presented by Scena at H Street Playhouse