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CULTURE THEATRE maltatoday | SUNDAY • 10 NOVEMBER 2019 8 Burgess, censorship and A Clockwork Orange When did you know you wanted to direct A Clockwork Orange? I was always interested in the cult that surrounded A Clockwork Orange having like most, watched the film before ever knowing of the book. But the book on which the film is based, was actually written by author Anthony Burgess and was published in 1962. Audiences should take into consideration that we're producing an adaptation of the play written by Burgess in 1986, which has a com- pletely different ending to the original. In fact Burgess's original ending was axed by his publishers and was one of the main reasons why A Clockwork Orange become one of Burgess's least favour- ite of his writings; as a result of this he liked Kubrick's film even less. It's also worth mentioning that the first film adaptation of the book wasn't Kubrick's but Andy Warhol's in 1965 titled: Vinyl. Now what does this have to do with Larinġa Mekkanika? Well I knew that it was the right time to produce this when ZiguZajg approached us to work together on their 2019 teen play and here we are today, less than 2 weeks away from opening night. We agreed to produce a piece that wouldn't shock audi- ences but would nonetheless retain it's relevance to a teen culture; a play that wasn't afraid to explore the reali- ties of the Maltese teenager in their truest forms. How often are our teens exposed to violence in public places? Drugs? Excessive alcohol consumption? What are our correctional facilities really doing about it? And just how often do teenagers take a bad turn? I think there's no better time than now to be produc- ing A Clockwork Orange as originally written by Burgess. No holds barred. Why did you decide to produce this in Maltese? This is probably one of the most challenging plays to translate into any language because of the Nadsat which is a fictional language used amongst the droogs, the four principal characters in the show. Wayne Flask was the perfect candidate for the job, and in my opinion he's done a great job at translat- ing Burgess's script! Neither the novel nor the play had ever been translated to Mal- tese which is a pity because they've been translated into countless languages from Chinese to Bulgarian before; so why not Maltese? Fun fact, Burgess also lived in Malta for some time and the book was also censored in Malta. In 1970, while on the island, he gave a lecture on pornography and cen- sprshop which dumbfunded a number of Maltese con- servatives at the time. When he lived here, he had tried to bring his library with him, but was told he could only be given his books after they were all read and given the green light by the authorities. This lecture of his was a reac- tion to this unjust treatment of literature, which lead him to even ask those in attend- ance whether Maltese's mor- als and beliefs were too weak to handle new ideas? While on holiday, Maltese authori- ties went as far as to requisi- tion his house and in 2019 A Clockwork Orange is being produced on Maltese soil in Maltese for a teen audience. I feel like this is all romantical- ly ironic wouldn't you agree? There's no use denying that A Clockwork Orange, has a reputation that precedes it. How do you intend to present this scandalous cult classic to a 14+ audience? Well let's start from the fact that the play's main charac- ter Alex is in fact 15 years old. The book is written from Alex's perspective which makes you wonder why it was never considered to be a ''teen friendly'' story to be- gin with. In 1990 the Royal Shakespeare Company cre- ated a mainstream musical based on A Clockwork Or- ange with music written by members of band U2; failing to amuse writer Burgess who turns out didn't really like the finished product. Well let's hope he'd like ours if he were still here to watch it! This is also probably my biggest challenge yet as a di- rector, but my amazing cast make it all that much easier. Each one of these exceptional actors give so much life and colour to their characters, shedding a very valid light on themes like morality, psy- chology, and the absurdity of human nature. Larinġa Mek- kanika is about teenagers in every shape and form and I'm very excited to see whether our audiences like the way we've chosen to adapt this cult classic. Laringa Mekkanika is a Te- atru Malta and ZiguZajg festival co-production and will be staged at the Valletta Campus Theatre as part of ZiguZajg Festival 2019 be- tween the 21st and 24th of November 2019. For tickets and more information please visit ziguzajg.org.mt PAUL COCKS met director Sean Buhagiar to discuss upcoming Teatru Malta and ZiguZajg production Larinġa Mekkanika less than two weeks away from opening night. Buhagiar tells us more about Burgess, censorship and why A Clockwork Orange today