Georg Büchner translated by John Mackendric; directed by Anna Parsons and Aaron Mayes; starring Joel Rees, Dianne Pulham, Sam Irwin, Jacob McDowell, Lockie Scott
When I saw that Woyzeck was in the Lunchtime Theatre programme the word that came to mind was “ambitious”, not that I had much to base that on to be honest. All I knew about Woyzeck was that it was something of a classic, and those are notoriously hard to stage. That and one of my favourite playwrights Sarah Kane, was a huge fan of Büchner. So in I bounded to Allen Hall, equal parts excited and apprehensive.
Rees was well cast as the main character Woyzeck, a soldier struggling to deal with his involvement in war, the faithfulness of his partner and the effects of a medical experiment. I enjoyed Pulham in the role of the aforementioned partner, a somewhat cruel character who bullies Woyzeck, but who is hard to completely condemn especially after she also becomes a victim of brutality.
All of the cast are very capable actors, but I feel like they needed stronger direction with this piece. There were moments with the cast appeared to be just rattling off the script without giving it the weight and understanding that it deserved.
It seemed to me the actors should be clearer about the characters they were playing. For instance McDowell’s character needed to be stronger and more commanding; he occupied an awkward middle ground between jovial and menacing. Likewise Scott, as the rival to Rees’ character, needed to have a bit more of a commanding presence.
The production on the whole was wellpaced, and the transitions from scene to scene were mostly seamless. There were a few moments however when the action had reached a climax that the actors had not quite yet managed to anticipate. This included the rape scene between Scott and Pulham, which seemed to come out of the blue without enough build up.
On the whole the cast and crew should be commended for not being afraid to bring Woyzeck to the Allen Hall stage and making a solid attempt in doing so. The crux of an excellent production was there; it just needed a bit more attention, time and tweaking to make it really shine.
3/5
Woyzeck
