WOYZECK. To 4 December.

London

WOYZECK
by Georg Buchner adapted by Daniel Kramer from a literal translation by Leighton Pugh

Gate Theatre To 4 December 2004
Mon-Sat 7.30pm Sun 21 Nov 6pm no performance 20 Nov
Runs 1hr 45min No interval

TICKETS: 020 7229 0706
Review: Timothy Ramsden 13 November

Sensational theatricality, vivid performances carried on waves of sound and light.In 1836, when he died aged 23, Buchner was a political exile who'd written a comedy and a play of political ideas, Danton's Death. The two dozen scenes of his new play had no external indication of their intended order.

There had been a Woyzeck, executed for killing his mistress. So Buchner may have been working on another fact-based, politically-tinged drama. But adapter/director Daniel Kramer shows how the theatrical excesses of expressionism work with Woyzeck. Like early Brecht too, this play presents a cold, hard world where social refinements are alien as people struggle to satisfy basic appetites.

When his mistress Marie, mother of Woyzeck junior (Myriam Acharki, convincingly mixing fidelity and lust after glamour), goes with a showy Drum Major (Tim Chipping, all cock-o'-the-walk) Edward Hogg's soldier goes crazy. Used to riding a child's trike, carrying others like a beast of burden, he eventually rips the alarm-bell that shrilly governs his life alongside a no-hands clock, and the juke-box where the popular beat accompanies the social dance from which he's excluded.

The production builds on animal imagery. Woyzeck's fellow-soldier Andres doubles as a showman's monkey gibberingly mocking human mannerisms, the doctor experimenting on Woyzeck becomes a stallion (and a drag dancer). Woyzeck, is tipped by the Captain he shaves or the doctor for whom he's a mere physiological system subsisting on dried peas. For them, it's like throwing bread for pigeons; Woyzeck at the bottom of the social heap, is barely human.

The Enlightenment (Beethoven's Ninth in orchestral glory, or its Ode to Joy' reduced to a recorder) alternates with rock music movingly in a scene where Marie and fellow washerwomen work with graceful movements to Beethoven's slow movement, speeding to frenzied effort as the music keeps switching. Josh Cole's sinister showman, introducing his animals in a fairground phantasmagoria, adds to the nightmarish world where Hogg's puzzled, compliant though smart-looking Woyzeck is led to violent despair, even as his baby is shown to be a wrapping of dust, sand and coins, materials of which life for such as Woyzeck is made.

This production is a triumph for the Gate.

Woyzeck: Edward Hogg
Andres: Roger Evans
Sergeant: Clive Brunt
Drum Major: Tim Chipping
Marie: Myriam Acharki
Margaret: Rachel Lumberg
Captain: Fred Pearson
Doctor: Tony Guilfoyle
Grandmother: Diana Payne Myers
Showman: Josh Cole

Director: Daniel Kramer
Designer: Neil Irish
Lighting: Charles Balfour
Sound: Adrienne Quartly
Choreography: Ann Yee
Associate director: Chris Jamba
Design assistant: Anna Jones

2004-11-14 13:33:36