October seems the perfect time of year for Anthony Burgess’ theatrical adaptation of his dark and didactic “A Clockwork Orange.” With all of the eerie and ominous goings-on and spine-tingling creepy-crawlies of the season, such a menacing little tale of a “dystopian near future” should fit right in with the strange chills of autumn and its howling, anthropomorphic winds. Yet Scena Theatre’s new production falls flat.

Billed as a play with music, Burgess adapted his 1962 novella into something closer to his original vision, as a sort of belated response to Stanley Kubrick’s film adaptation in 1971.