Antony Burgess's satirical novel about ‘ultravoilence’, the state and free-will in a dystopian future, adapted for film by Stanley Kubrick (1971) was infamous for decades following its conception. 'Action to the Words' 2011 stage version of 'A Clockwork Orange' bursts back into life this week with a tightly worked, testosterone fuelled ensemble cast. Alexandra Spencer Jones's direction brings this seminal work sharply into focus for the unusually young audience at Park Theatre.

Alexander is Burgess's hero, leader of the gang of ‘droogs’ who assault and brutally rape other men, gulp down spiked milkshakes and bash old ladies on the head while nurturing a passion for classical music. Imprisoned for his crimes, Alex signs up to be guinea pig for a criminal reform scheme, where a distaste for violence will be programmed into his biochemistry. So powerful is the ‘science’ that he tries to kill himself to escape Beethoven, a Pavlovian response to the music that was played during his re-programming.

Staged in the round, the Bob Fosse style choreography set to rousing club anthems binds the action and makes palatable the extreme violence – not to mention possible on stage. The cast wear skin-tight black jeans and braces with mostly naked torsos and slicked back hair. It’s a euphoric ride with breathless physicality, overblown characterisation and chest pumping attitudes. Yet within the theatricality there is room to think, to laugh and to feel compassion for those who commit heinous acts. ‘What about me? Am I to be just like a dog?’

There is no doubt the issues raised in this morality tale are as current as they ever were. Gang violence and drug use, the ethics of science, youth offending and over-crowding in prisons. ‘We are concerned with cutting down crime and reducing the ghastly overcrowding’ says the minister of the interior. I heard something similar on the news today…

The cast is strong in its entirety, but Philip Honeywell and Sebastian Chance stood out as Dr Branom/Marty and Dim/Joe the Lodger. Jonno Davies is mesmerising as Alexander, with coal ringed eyes and ripped torso. His tenderness is entirely convincing alongside the brutality and his grasp of Burgess delicious teenage ‘patois’ absolute. It’s these glimpses of humanity as he is rejected by his family, dreams of Marty and reflects on the past that stay with you when the noise has died down. ‘All it was, was that I was young.’

LATEST REVIEWS