Word: woyzeck
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Dates: during 1966-1966
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Having seen several recent productions of Georg Buechner's cryptic drama Woyzeck, I still cannot understand the fascination it holds for young directors. Buechner died at 23 in 1837. He left behind, among other writings, a jumbled, partly illegible manuscript of an unfinished play based on the real-life case of Johann Christian Woyzeck, an army barber executed in 1824 for the murder of his mistress. The order of scenes in this manuscript is indeterminate; some scenes are mere fragments. The ending of the play is unclear. The dialogue in both the German original and most translations borders on psychotic...
...interpretation of Woyzeck, all this is drastically oversimplified; I can hear Tim Mayer and his cast laughing already. However, the mood of the play is one of total futility of existence. And this Mayer has captured economically by using a revolving set (designed by Clayton Koelb) pushed by Woyzeck and other characters in changing from scene to scene. At worst, the unpolished mechanics of the revolve made for some visually awkward scene transitions in the first act. But most of the time, especially when Woyzeck did the pushing, the slow turning of the set neatly captured the hopelessness of Woyzeck...
Considering that Woyzeck was selected, cast, staged, and opened in something short of two weeks, Mayer has done an extraordinary job with the staging. Concentrating most of his efforts on the set-pieces (the long, crowded scenes in the tavern), he lets his talented cast fend for themselves in the shorter dialogue scenes with little blocking to guide them. The balance is really nice, particularly in the second half when Woyzeck becomes a blend of introspective horror, and Mayerian theatricality...
...What A Lovely War and The Bacchae made it quite clear that the best acting in Cambridge this Summer was at Agassiz. Woyzeck is perfectly cast. Tom Babe, his voice lowered an octave, plays Woyzeck as if he were a tormented animal. I thought at first that he was too powerful in the opening scenes, but the performance continued to build skillfully in intensity. Babe is great with props; whenever his hand touches the butcher's knife, you can't take your eyes...
Peter Weil as the Drum Major and Carl Nagin as Woyzeck's friend Andres work in their parts more out of physical presence than anything else. Mayer has, on occasion, underdirected his actors: Nagin seems to be playing more to himself than to Babe, and James Shuman's monologue sounds more like an exercise in dialogue modulation than the barroom philosophy it should...