Saturday 1st June at the Cremorne Theatre QPAC
Directed and Choreographed by Alexandra Spencer-Jones
My 5th evening out at the theatre in two weeks.
Anthony Burgess (1917 - 1993) wrote the cult novel 'A Clockwork Orange' with some haste in 1960 (published in 62) believing he was about to die. It turned out he had no brain tumour. In 1971 his screenplay, which was even more violent than the novel, was rejected by Stanley Kubrick for the film, with Kubrick choosing to write it himself. This stage play was an adaptation by Burgess himself written to be definitive and separate from the film. Do not expect a staged reproduction of the film. This is physical theatre pumped with testosterone and oozing sexuality.
The nine boys of A Clockwork Orange touring Australia from England are beautiful, powerful and brilliant in their multitude of roles. They rippled with taught muscles, glistened with sweat, were capable of such a variety of voices for their characters and could act their shirts off, which they often did in this most homoerotic play.
As the central character Alex DeLarge the role creating Martin MacCreadie was a magnetic, spellbinding explosion of every nuance known to the acting craft. He was nothing short of phenomenal. His face, startling eyes and voice never stopped in a cascade of emotions and variations of mood of the psychotic Alex. As one reviewer commented in their own words, he was so convincing as to the inner workings of his mind that you almost understood his violence and forgot that he was a nutter. At times he contorted and transformed his body before your eyes into something akin to an image of The Hulk in all his puffed up muscle bound rage. I don't think he left the stage for the full uninterrupted 90 minutes choosing to change costume in view of the audience unable to take their eyes off him. I was super impressed. Even his mum liked what I had to say about her talented son on facebook.
The rest of the cast were all worthy of mention, but I did notice what appeared to be great ballet training in James Meryk (above with stick). The production was physical theatre at its most exhilarating. We have been blessed to have had so many fine examples of the most physical commitment to acting on stage here in Brisbane of late. This is also the third performance I have seen in the last two weeks that has been made up of an entirely male cast who are also some of the most healthy looking boys on the planet. An evening of sweat, dance, aggression, violence, seduction and a lot of very sexy kissing.
Of course the music and in particular the Beethoven and his rousing 9th Symphony was an essential element of the impact. It soared and aroused my emotions as it should. Also so notable was the language of Anthony Burgess which at times had a grand stylised Shakespearean flavour and was delivered by consummate actors. I found the evening electric and I was somewhat ashamed of the relative mildness of the audience. Perhaps they were in shock.
Australian Tour Cast
Neil Chinneck
Brodsky/F Alexander/Mum/Ensemble
Simon Cotton Joe the
lodger/Policeman/Bully Boy/Ensemble
Damien Hasson
Deltoid/The Rev/Ensemble
Philip Honeywell
Branom/Warder/Marty/Ensemble
Martin McCreadie Alex
DeLarge
James Meryk
Georgie/Bromine/Ensemble
Stephen Spencer
Dim/Dad/Ensemble
Will Stokes Billy
Boy/Rubenstein/F-Me Pumps/Ensemble
James Smoker The
Minister/Old Woman/Ensemble
Eddie Usher Pete/The
Clown/Ensemble
A message from the brilliant star Martin Mccreadie
Hi Barry!
I'm so sorry for the delay in response! As it is, I'm not
the most frequent Facebook user, however i was completely unaware of (or
prepared for) the mass of messages i have hidden in my 'other' messages folder
on here! Tis the first time I've checked since being home from Oz and its very
heart warming indeed!
I don't really know what say in response to such an
overwhelmingly positive response in your blog! Thank you ever so much for such
kind words. I'm going in for a few auditions now that are for either film or
TV, so to know from an unknown source that i delivered the goods for them, is
crucial at such a scary (but ultimately exciting) time. So thank you very much.
Also, Brisbane ROCKS!
Warm Regards
Martin McCreadie.
