Woyzeck is currently being performed at Hope Street Theatre, which is an ideal venue for the play. Produced by Old Fruit Jar Productions, Alex Carr directed Woyzeck with a great flair and enthusiasm for the play. He has done an excellent job bringing his vision of Woyzeck on the stage. His direction was tightly controlled and his passion for the play was clearly demonstrated.
Woyzeck was initially written by Georg Büchner in 1936, but unfortunately he passed away a year later. Therefore his work was incomplete and posthumously finished by various authors, editors and translators over time. The version of Woyzeck performed this evening was a retelling by Jack Thorne. The dialogue between the characters was very strong and told a great story about a deeply troubled soldier, Woyzeck, who was experiencing major difficulties in his family and work environment.
The main running theme in Woyzeck was mental health issues, which demonstrated the severe effects they have on Frank’s family and work life, when they both collide. Woyzeck did a fantastic job exploring the depths and damage that mental health issues can cause to someone’s life. Other themes covered were relationships, depression, conflict, friction, betrayal, trust, oppression, poverty, class, war trauma and hardship struggles.
Jordan Barkley played the principal lead of Frank Woyzeck in the play. His performance as the deeply troubled soldier was extremely raw, emotional and powerful to watch. His stage presence shone in Woyzeck and as the play progressed, his performance became much more harrowing to watch. He added so much depth to the character of Woyzeck and created a sense of vulnerability and naivety about him.
Jordan Barkley was supported by a great cast of actors including Florence King (Marie), Anthony Roberts (Andrews), Rachel McGrath (Maggie), Christine Rose (Mother), Josh Ennis (Captain Thompson) and Jamie Peacock (Doctor Martens). The acting of all the cast members was of a good standard and all actors played their characters really well, by added more layers to their characters.
Special mention to Florence King as she played Woyzeck’s girlfriend, Marie brilliantly. She was doing her best to help and support her boyfriend through his problems, whilst looking after their newborn baby at the same time. She kept attempting to reassure Woyzeck that they will get through their problems. The chemistry and dynamics of Jordan and Florence was really good.
The narractive of Woyzeck revolved around an extremely deeply troubled soldier, Frank Woyzeck, who had experienced some harrowing trauma in the past. Woyzeck was set in 1981 Berlin at the height of the Cold War. Woyzeck was living with his girlfriend, Marie and their newborn baby, in a grotty, rundown flat above a butcher’s ship. He was clearly struggling financially and was doing menial jobs for a Captain for additional income. However, this wasn’t proving to be sufficient for him. Woyzeck heard about Doctor Marten’s medical experiments and went ahead to visit the Doctor. Desperately wanting the money for the medical trials, Woyzeck has the examination and signed the contract without reading it properly. Woyzeck’s mental health started to break down and he experienced apocalyptic visions. Woyzeck’s fate was played out in a series of nightmare encounters. He stumbled through a world of macabre carnivals, sexual betrayal and cruel oppression. He was subsequently pursued by paranoid fantasies of his mother. After taking part in the medical trials, Woyzeck was experiencing severe side effects, which were having a devastating effect on his family and work life, which led him on a collision course to self destruction.
The set was very minimal, but effective. The backdrop depicted the surroundings of Woyzeck’s grotty flat well. The guns looked authentic and realistic. The costumes fitted the 1980’s era and the army uniforms looked really good. The lighting contrasted the moods of the scenes extremely well. The scene transitions flowed really well. The narractive of the story was told at a good, steady pace throughout the play.
In summary, Woyzeck told the story of a deeply troubled soldier in an extremely harrowing and emotional way. Woyzeck did an excellent job highlighting the effects that mental health issues can have on a person’s life and the daily struggles they face in their family and work lives. There was a good amount of tension, which heightened as the story progressed. The play had everything you would expect such as drama, anguish, conflict, tension, friction, action. I would highly recommend you go and see this excellent play.
Reviewer - Mark Cooper
on - 23/1/20
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