Our audiences have expressed such strong reactions about DreamLogic's A Clockwork Orange that we wanted to create a place they could share those reactions with the world. Please share your thoughts in the comments.
I saw the show recently and it was so cool to feel part of this play every step of the way. I mean, you literally feel as if you are a "Droog" following Alex and his gang around the space looking for trouble. The set looks like it could be part of the Museum of Contemporary Art in its futuristic sci-fi thriller way with symbolic meaning around each corner of the circular building. It makes for an amazing addition to the story to be in this space. Yet, most of all, the whole cast gave such a strong performance that even the smaller character roles such as the prison guard, moved me. Alex made his "sickness" feel so real that I felt my own stomach knot up when he became the lab rat for the doctors. I have seen the Kubrick movie and never truly saw any light or hope for Alex. Whereas in DreamLogic's version, it gives the audience a little more choice in deciding for themselves if Alex really did have a transformation or not. MUCH more is left to the imagination and it isn't simply a show put on for shock value, but you can see the message within it. In the movie, the true message gets lost for me. I felt my choice of deciding what happened was taken away when I watched the movie a few years ago. I was happy to find that this show gave me back the chance to imagine Alex in the way I always wished to imagine him as. Truly DreamLogic's version is far more dreamy and surreal than the movie ever was. It made for a great night that made me want to party all night long afterwards :)
It was brutal and inescapable. The raw emotions churning out of the characters were enough to make you want to turn away. The physical violence and menace that accompanied it made you want to run while your feet rooted themselves into the ground. It is an unforgiving assault to the senses.
But I would be lying if I said this show was not worth your time. Every moment of this tightly-packed 90-minute show punches you in the gut with its raw and relentless honesty. The actors surround you until you are caught up in the story. I found myself experiencing the conflict, pain, sorrow, and anger of the characters as if it were my own. It was a painful process and left me shaking. It was worth every moment of inner struggle just to know I could struggle so hard and feel so much.
You do not watch this show. You experience it. Whether you want to or not. But after the onslaught of dark and conflicting emotions and the inner doubts and battling ideas, you come out of the darkness into an understanding of yourself or the world or humankind that you did not have--or did not realize--before.
I may not have enjoyed it, but I am so glad that I experienced it.
To conform to our world you must accept violence and rebellion as the norm. With widespread violence occurring from Libya to Vancouver, even from our neighborhoods and communities, no one is safe. Images of violence are piped into our minds everyday via news media and social interaction. If you think you are not a part of it think again. You walk past it, you read about it, you even encourage it. You can continue to deny that violence exists in the world but soon it will be on your door step making you choose. So why not get educated on your choice before you are handed a ticking grenade and must decide where to chuck it. What better way to do that than through the eyes of some of the best storytellers of our time. Forget Stanley Kubrick, Dreamlogic Theaterworks teams up with Anthony Burgess to bring you a show that demands your attention. Indeed you are part of the show the entire time, pulled into every moment of action, asked to view horrors with Young Alex, Your Humble Narrator. It's no question that you will be sickened, you will want to escape, but the question you must ask yourself of your own morality. Be prepared to examine what you believe. Director Scott McKinsey is clearly not one for coddling his audience; his production conveys the duality of the story throughout allowing you to take a side. Much like the world we live in the sides are not good and evil or black and white, but apathy and action. What better place to debate your own desire to save or destroy than downtown Evanston, Illinois in a building that has been abandoned for decades. You couldn't be anymore left to your own devises in the middle of the richest suburb in Chicago. But seriously, if it sounds like a lot of work for a Weekend night, forget the moral quandary and come for a drink. The show is wonderfully cast. I was ecstatic to see Mikey Renan (Alex) back for a major roll as he was my favorite part of the previous Dreamlogic production. Max Jenkins (Prison Chaplain) and Tyler Pistorious (F.Alexander, Dr.Brodsky, etc.) changed my life with the stunning clash of their characters and their ability to never back down from presenting Burgess's argument to you loud and clear.
PS. Thanks for helping me slack off at work again!
DreamLogic has a knack for perfectly matching their performance space to their play, and A Clockwork Orange is no exception. By turns cavernous and creepy, cluttered with a sort-of futuristic heap of odds and ends - remnants of other failed experiments, perhaps? - and clinical and austere, the set enhances the already unsettled feelings you experience from the first moment. This production is an unsparing look at brutality, and includes glaring reminders from the world around us. It forces you to examine cures that are worse than the disease, and creates ambiguity in both sympathetic and unsympathetic characters. Where the movie leaves little room to surmise "what happens next," the play allows for a glimmer of hope (for the optimists among us; at the very least, the possibilities are open. The promenade staging means that there is no way to feel anything but completely immersed and engaged in the action. I won’t soon forget the experience.
Our audiences have expressed such strong reactions about DreamLogic's A Clockwork Orange that we wanted to create a place they could share those reactions with the world. Please share your thoughts in the comments.
I saw the show recently and it was so cool to feel part of this play every step of the way. I mean, you literally feel as if you are a "Droog" following Alex and his gang around the space looking for trouble. The set looks like it could be part of the Museum of Contemporary Art in its futuristic sci-fi thriller way with symbolic meaning around each corner of the circular building. It makes for an amazing addition to the story to be in this space. Yet, most of all, the whole cast gave such a strong performance that even the smaller character roles such as the prison guard, moved me.
ReplyDeleteAlex made his "sickness" feel so real that I felt my own stomach knot up when he became the lab rat for the doctors.
I have seen the Kubrick movie and never truly saw any light or hope for Alex. Whereas in DreamLogic's version, it gives the audience a little more choice in deciding for themselves if Alex really did have a transformation or not. MUCH more is left to the imagination and it isn't simply a show put on for shock value, but you can see the message within it. In the movie, the true message gets lost for me. I felt my choice of deciding what happened was taken away when I watched the movie a few years ago. I was happy to find that this show gave me back the chance to imagine Alex in the way I always wished to imagine him as. Truly DreamLogic's version is far more dreamy and surreal than the movie ever was. It made for a great night that made me want to party all night long afterwards :)
I would be lying if I said I enjoyed this show.
ReplyDeleteIt was brutal and inescapable. The raw emotions churning out of the characters were enough to make you want to turn away. The physical violence and menace that accompanied it made you want to run while your feet rooted themselves into the ground. It is an unforgiving assault to the senses.
But I would be lying if I said this show was not worth your time. Every moment of this tightly-packed 90-minute show punches you in the gut with its raw and relentless honesty. The actors surround you until you are caught up in the story. I found myself experiencing the conflict, pain, sorrow, and anger of the characters as if it were my own. It was a painful process and left me shaking. It was worth every moment of inner struggle just to know I could struggle so hard and feel so much.
You do not watch this show. You experience it. Whether you want to or not. But after the onslaught of dark and conflicting emotions and the inner doubts and battling ideas, you come out of the darkness into an understanding of yourself or the world or humankind that you did not have--or did not realize--before.
I may not have enjoyed it, but I am so glad that I experienced it.
To conform to our world you must accept violence and rebellion as the norm. With widespread violence occurring from Libya to Vancouver, even from our neighborhoods and communities, no one is safe. Images of violence are piped into our minds everyday via news media and social interaction. If you think you are not a part of it think again. You walk past it, you read about it, you even encourage it. You can continue to deny that violence exists in the world but soon it will be on your door step making you choose.
ReplyDeleteSo why not get educated on your choice before you are handed a ticking grenade and must decide where to chuck it. What better way to do that than through the eyes of some of the best storytellers of our time. Forget Stanley Kubrick, Dreamlogic Theaterworks teams up with Anthony Burgess to bring you a show that demands your attention. Indeed you are part of the show the entire time, pulled into every moment of action, asked to view horrors with Young Alex, Your Humble Narrator. It's no question that you will be sickened, you will want to escape, but the question you must ask yourself of your own morality. Be prepared to examine what you believe.
Director Scott McKinsey is clearly not one for coddling his audience; his production conveys the duality of the story throughout allowing you to take a side. Much like the world we live in the sides are not good and evil or black and white, but apathy and action. What better place to debate your own desire to save or destroy than downtown Evanston, Illinois in a building that has been abandoned for decades. You couldn't be anymore left to your own devises in the middle of the richest suburb in Chicago.
But seriously, if it sounds like a lot of work for a Weekend night, forget the moral quandary and come for a drink. The show is wonderfully cast. I was ecstatic to see Mikey Renan (Alex) back for a major roll as he was my favorite part of the previous Dreamlogic production. Max Jenkins (Prison Chaplain) and Tyler Pistorious (F.Alexander, Dr.Brodsky, etc.) changed my life with the stunning clash of their characters and their ability to never back down from presenting Burgess's argument to you loud and clear.
PS. Thanks for helping me slack off at work again!
DreamLogic has a knack for perfectly matching their performance space to their play, and A Clockwork Orange is no exception. By turns cavernous and creepy, cluttered with a sort-of futuristic heap of odds and ends - remnants of other failed experiments, perhaps? - and clinical and austere, the set enhances the already unsettled feelings you experience from the first moment.
ReplyDeleteThis production is an unsparing look at brutality, and includes glaring reminders from the world around us. It forces you to examine cures that are worse than the disease, and creates ambiguity in both sympathetic and unsympathetic characters.
Where the movie leaves little room to surmise "what happens next," the play allows for a glimmer of hope (for the optimists among us; at the very least, the possibilities are open.
The promenade staging means that there is no way to feel anything but completely immersed and engaged in the action. I won’t soon forget the experience.