WELSH theatre company Volcano brought their version of Anthony Burgess’s dystopian novel to the Nuffield on a suitably dank night.

With the UK riots still relatively fresh in the mind, the story’s themes of violence and disconnection take on an intriguing modern light.

Director Paul Davies reveals in a post-show Q&A that he is no fan of Stanley Kubrick’s better known film version and there are precious few parallels to be drawn with the movie.

But it is this difference that brings a welcome new edge to this stage version.

The most immediately arresting point is the use of the Soviet-infused gang slang, which is largely absent in Kubrick’s film adaptation.

Though initially disorientating, it succeeds in sucking you quickly into the sinister, insular world of Alex and his droogs and you soon become fluent in their mysterious babble.

While the characters all bear their familiar traits, each scene seems like you are being exposed to it for the first time.

The scene in which Alex kills an elderly lady, leading to his imprisonment and ultimately the psychological roller coaster at the heart of the story, is superbly improvised with frantically paced reruns of the crime creating a queasy, head spinning horror.

Oh yes, the Volcano version spares nothing in the way of the novel’s controversial, dark material – where would it be without it? Yet it is all cleverly handled, never overplaying it and ensuring it becomes just a part, albeit a crucial one, of the production and not the focus of it.

The book’s final chapter, with Alex’s pseudoredemption, is included, unlike in the film. It acts as payoff for 90 minutes of unremittingly intense, gripping theatre of the highest quality.