There are actually two struggles at work in David Halliwell's alternately surreal and absurd 1966 comedy, a dark satire about a disaffected English art student's ridiculous plan to buck the establishment by starting his own sociopolitical party. The first struggle belongs to the title character, Malcolm Scrawdyke. Spurred by his recent expulsion from a university and by his radical tendencies, the passionate yet neurotically paranoid Malcolm sees the world as his adversary. His extremist agenda, he figures, is the answer to a stagnant society, not to mention a great way to get back at the professor who kicked him out of school.
Unfortunately, the second struggle in this work falls to the audience, which must endure the play's prolonged running time and Halliwell's penchant for drawing out scenes longer than necessary. Clocking in at more than three hours, this script definitely represents an overload of material. When faced with such excess, we find it a bit of an effort to stay focused on the play's rather intense, complex content.
Nevertheless, Halliwell's creation stands as a witty and thought-provoking piece of black comedy. Able to evoke laughter and disturbed shock nearly simultaneously, it's an imaginative exploration of youth's timeless search for meaning and identity. In Malcolm's case, that search turns out to be a humorous and a brutal quest, as his grandiose schemes and misguided intentions get out of control. Robert G. Leigh's tight direction and a solid cast offer a captivating illustration of Malcolm's doomed endeavors. Leigh and his crew are equally accomplished at balancing the script's moments of humor and its forays into startling viciousness and violence. Even Halliwell's overlong scenes are ultimately stimulating in this team's hands.
Leading the ensemble as the driven yet paradoxically aimless Malcolm is Michael Ambrosio, who deftly depicts this antihero as an odd bundle of conflicted personality. One moment he is eerily threatening, as Malcolm goads his followers into a kidnapping scheme; the next moment he is boyishly amusing when Malcolm agonizes over Ann (Marisa Passanisi), the girl he desperately wants to impress. Also adept at finding the humor and sobering gravity in Halliwell's work are Jeff Lappin, Michael Hyland, and Graham Sibley, who portray Malcolm's friends-turned-followers. In this trio, Sibley is definitely the standout as nerdy, bookish Dennis Charles Nipple. With his nervous laugh and gawky physical presence, he heads up many of the funnier scenes. He also turns in one of the play's most poignant moments, when Nipple is ostracized by the group at Malcolm's command. This turning point instantly marks the downturn of Malcolm's plans; it's also the point at which we realize just how well Halliwell's script combines the elements of absurd humor and dark emotion.