Actor Jonno Davies: “A Clockwork Orange” is a Ballet of Sex and Violence

Jonno Davies will surprise you: He’s one of the brightest talents to watch coming out of Britain.

Davies leads an all-male cast on a harrowing 90-minute romp through Anthony Burgess’ cautionary 1962 tale, “A Clockwork Orange,” in which he accurately lays out a world where violence is glorified, humanity is seen as a sign of weakness and predators roam the Earth with impunity.

In our interview, we asked Davies about the sexuality and violence in this new staging. Certainly it’s nowhere near as graphic as Stanley Kubrick’s terrifyingly vivid cinematic take on the book from 1971. Davies believes the new play gives theatergoers an opportunity to absorb the gravity of Burgess’ visionary work without going into shock at the savagery depicted onscreen by Kubrick.

In the play, characters stalk one another, molest one another, beat, berate and rape one another. But . . . it’s all done in a highly-stylized pas-de-deux that resembles nothing so much as a ballet gone horribly wrong. As Burgess’ gang of “Droogs” would call it: “Real Horrorshow.”