Most people know that the film Clockwork Orange was withdrawn by its own maker Stanley Kubrick.

Fewer people know that, even before the film's recent re-release, it was possible to see it on stage.

The story tells of a violent young thug called Alex who, with his gang of equally mindless friends, has plagued a neighbourhood.

He becomes the basis of experimental treatment to expunge his criminality by forcing him to watch filmed violence while he is administered nauseating drugs.

The films are accompanied by the music of Beethoven and Mozart and he is also conditioned to feel nauseous when confronted with that.

The story probably has more notoriety than any other and the Cliffs's management were concerned that, in common with other venues where it has been produced, the show would provoke local outrage.

So far Southenders have taken little interest in the arrival of the play, which will be produced next week at the Cliffs Pavilion by Northern Stage Ensemble, though other theatres which have hosted it have been picketed.

The film was recently re-released, but it was made from the American version of the book, which had its final chapter removed by the publisher.

Writer Anthony Burgess explained: "My American publisher did not like my ending. He said it was too British and too bland. This means that he saw something implausible - or unsaleable - in my notion that most intelligent adolescents, given to senseless violence and vandalism, get over it when they sniff the onset of maturity."

"At the end of this play you are to watch young Alex growing up, falling in love, contemplating eventual fatherhood. Violence, he sees, is kids stuff.

"You must make up your own minds as to which ending you prefer. You can always leave before the end."

A Clockwork Orange opens on Tuesday at Southend's Cliffs Pavilion and runs until the Saturday. Admission will be restricted to those aged 16 or above because of the violent images being portrayed.

Tickets are available from the box office at the Cliffs Pavilion, Station Road, Westcliff. Phone 01702 351135 to book.

Wired up - Wild child Alex goes in for aversion therapy to curb his wicked ways in the stage version of Anthony Burgess's A Clockwork Orange

Converted for the new archive on 19 November 2001. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.