Peter Viney's Blog

Woyzeck
by Georg Büchner
In a new version by Jack Thorne

Directed by Joe Murphy
Designed by Tom Scutt
Composer- Isobel Waller-Bridge

Old Vic Theatre, London
Wednesday 7th June 2017, 14.30

CAST:
John Boyega – Woyzeck
Ben Batt – Andrews
Nancy Carroll – Maggie Thompson, the captain’s wife / Woyzeck’s mother
Darell D’Silva – Doctor Martens
Sarah Greene – Maria
Isabella Marshall- GDR citizen / ensemble
Steffan Rhodri – Captain Thompson
David Rubin – landlord / ensemble
Theo Solomon – East German soldier / ensemble

Woyzeck isn’t so much a play as a series of fragments left by Georg Büchner when he died in 1837 at the age of 23. Many attempts have been made to complete it, and it was first published in 1879, and performed first in 1913. It is one of Michael Billington’s 101 Greatest Plays as is Life of Galileo playing just across the road at the Young Vic at the same time. Actually, its presence in the book is why we decided to see it.

It is considered a classic of modern German drama. It’s the story of an army barber, maddened by medical experiments (a diet of only peas in the original), who murders his wife because of her infidelity with a drum-major.

The latest version is by Harry Potter playwright Jack Thorne, and stars John Boyega from Star Wars as Woyzeck. Harry Potter playwright? Directly after starring Daniel Radcliffe in Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead? Well, the Old Vic is chasing the stars, and the reflected glow of J.K. Rowling and Star Wars, usually a West End strategy. Paul Taylor in The Independent opines they are widening their audience as a result. OK, but on this matinee it was nowhere near full, just a couple of rows in the middle of the dress circle, so if the aim is to widen the audience, they have failed miserably. It’s usually very hard to get Old Vic tickets, but this play is really not ever going to be a popular bums on seats draw. Having said that, the row of young women near us giggled away at all the effing and ceeing and enjoyed the explicit sexual descriptions. The tickets, at 50% more than Sir Lenny Henry with a stellar cast in a much smaller theatre (the Donmar) the night before, are overpriced. Small cast, no live music. The major budget items must be Boyega and the set.

Woyzeck (John Boyega), and Maria (Sarah Greene)

It has been updated to 1981, and Woyzeck is now a soldier in the British army in Germany. He is living with his Northern Irish Catholic partner, Maria (Sarah Greene), and their child above a halal abattoir in Berlin … being unmarried they can’t live in barracks. There are shadows of past events in Belfast which are never made explicit. His main squaddie buddy is Andrews (Ben Batt) who describes himself as a randy grunt who specialises in screwing bored service wives. He has his way with the captain’s randy upper class wife (Nancy Carroll), persuading Woyzeck and Maria to loan their marital bed for the purpose, and arouses Woyzeck’s tortured suspicions about Maria. Funniest moment or yukkiest moment was wiping off the child’s teddy bear, inadvertently left in the bed, afterwards.

One of the very few moments with four on stage. L to R Andrews (Ben Batt), Maggie , the captain’s wife (Nancy Carroll). Woyzeck and Maria only look on. So it’s still a dialogue.

OMO detergent boxes feature prominently … according to Andrews, women whose husbands are away place OMO soap boxes in the window to signify “On My Own.” Casting an Afro-Caribbean actor emphasises its already obvious connection as a Squaddie Othello. In the original play, Maria is seduced. In this version, it is Woyzeck’s suspicion, not actuality, moving it even closer to Othello.

The captain, brilliantly played by Stefan Rhoddri, has taken a shine to Woyzeck who has to act as barber, shaving him, and then acting as masseur. Good massage techniques with an added chiropractic folded arms click. He has to massage the inner thigh too. The captain likes that sort of thing.

Woyzeck (Boyega) shaves Captain Thompson (Steffan Rhodri), in front of one of the dozen panels.

Not only the programme, but several reviews, describe the play as the “first working class tragedy.” Woyzeck is the abandoned offspring of a prostitute, who was forced to watch his mother at work in this version. He is illiterate and was rejected by seven foster parents. Sorry, you have to be VERY upper class to describe him as “working class” and the proud British skilled working class (like my grandparents) would be insulted and appalled. This character is deep underclass. Mind you, for an illiterate he seems OK with a German phrase book in scene one.

The play is a series of dialogues … or duologues. 95% or more of Act One has just two actors on stage at a time. It’s a huge stage. The set consists of several rows of large padded silver plates which drop down or slide on to loud music. The lighting plot is extremely good, but all this clanging, sliding and descending and ascending in depth makes a mountain out of a molehill for what is essentially two people talking. Is it the wrong theatre for the play, or the wrong play for the theatre? Yes. Both. One of the few times we see more than two people onstage is a brief incursion by a German girl, pulled back by East German guards. It’s so fleeting, and so obscured by mist, I was amazed to see their full uniforms in the final curtain call.

A feature which the reviews revel in is Woyzeck punching a silver foil covered section of the flat on the set and viscera being revealed. Not today. It was yellow stuffing. But after the interval the bloody viscera were in the hole. I assume either Boyega punched the wrong panel, or the stage crew failed to refill it after the previous show.

Woyzeck descending into madness

Boyega does the descent into madness emotionally and with great intensity. Yes, he can act on stage, but I say that about most film stars. Woyzeck is desperately short of money and signs up for some experiments on growth hormones with a German Doctor, Dr Martens (Darrell D’Silva). These cause intestinal issues, and promote his descent. I do question the wisdom of having Dr Martens do his lecture on his experiments with poor Woyzeck on stage, in German. Very few would have followed it. But then I question the wisdom of quite a bit of it.

Woyzeck is hallucinating, and we have a very clever switch of him watching Andrews screwing Maggie, the captain’s wife, who with a flick of the sheet, becomes Maria, then flick again, and it’s Maggie. Ben Batt as Andrews has to do a full dangling frontal in act two (screwing Maggie again) and he is tattooed as soldiers might be now. In 1981? All over the upper torso? I don’t think theatre should give expensive tattoos a positive image for audiences. The hallucinations continue so that Woyzeck doesn’t know whether their child is a boy or a girl. Maria seems to switch her opinion too. In an “Oh, What A Lovely War” late 1960s drama moment, the captain appears in full Siege of Khartoum era uniform. Then he’s in blood drenched boxer shorts. We’re into flashbacks and Nancy Carroll doubles as his mother, switching in once scene from RP to Estuary and back as she switches characters.

It’s not a long play. The notice in the auditorium says first half 50 minutes / 20 minute interval / second half 60 minutes. True, we were out at 4.40.

Boyega emotes for England with excellent support. A wonderful personal performance, but I don’t think it’s a great play, and in bits is veering to pretentious. I found it over-produced in a proscenium theatre that was way too large for what happens on stage. The huge mechanised ever shifting set was very good, but dwarfed all those two parter conversations.

**

WHAT THE CRITICS SAID
4
Paul Taylor, Independent ****
Tim Bano, The Stage ****
Mark Shenton, London Theatre ****
3
Michael Billington, Guardian – ***
Domenic Cavendish, Telegraph ***
Tim Adams, The Observer ***
Andrzej Lukowski, Time Out ***
2
Quentin Letts, Daily Mail **
Ann Treneman, The Times **

JOHN BOYEGA on this blog
Star Wars – The Force Awakens (film)

SARAH GREENE
The Cripple of Inishmaan, Grandage Season, 2013 (Helen)

NANCY CARROLL
The Magistrate, NT live

DARRELL D’SILVA
A Midsummer Night’s Dream , Bath 2016 (Theseus / Oberon)

STEFFAN RHODRI
A Mad World My Masters, RSC 2013