Greasy
Joan's newest
offering at Live Bait Theater continues the company's ongoing commitment to challenge
audiences thematically, visually, aurally, stylistically. Greg Allen's creative staging of Buchner's 1837 play fragment "Woyzeck" continues this tradition.
As a newcomer to the tradition of creatively staging this early
modernist/expressionist play, I was riveted. I leave it to the substantive
experts to place the particular production in its dramaturgically earned place.
This particular production, as a piece of theatre staged in "no time"
in the year 2006, is mesmerizing and a visual treat.
This
productions one example of double casting resonates in intriguing ways. The
guide to our theatrical experience, The Barker, is played by the same actor (Guy
Massey) who
portrays The Doctor. The Barker introduces us, the observers, to the artifice
of the transformation of hapless Woyzeck (Carlo Garcia) into a soldier from the
externals: donning boots, shouldering a gun, learning to follow orders. As The
Doctor, he guides (and perhaps misuses) the simple soldier who comes to him for
treatment. Immediately we are shown a world in which there is danger at the
edges -- in many ways evoking the theatre and movie musical based on Isherwood's
Berlin stories of the Berlin between the world wars: "Cabaret".
"Leave your troubles outside", the M.C. in "Cabaret"
invites us --- inside, the world is beautiful. The world of the hapless
everyman Woyzeck created by set designer Marcus Stephens, costume designer Alison
Heryer, lighting
designer Rachel Damon and sound designer Nick Keenan (generic Nickelodeon-midway-circus sideshow) is
of a dusty 19th century big top, with large canvas "walls" separating
our players from the mysterious and life threatening screams
"outside". Pin spots highlight action at key intervals, and the big
top metaphor extends throughout the play. There is always danger at the edges
of this universe - sometimes provided by the unknown, and sometimes provided by
the play's characters, lurking at the edges and peering in through the gaps in
the canvas, watching the play's action. Our story telling is not linear but
sequential and repeated. Through this repetition crafted by the adapter Allen
we gain some measure of clarity, yet equal measure of confusion. Herein lies
our story.
The
production introduces a pastiche of themes that are cobbled together in this
"out of time" atmosphere: human and animal natives; human as objects
of experimentation; individuals blindly objectified by the march of history.
This world is out of order, and our Woyzeck is a victim of many events
(conscription in the army; medical experimentation) and a victimizer at the
same time (his relations with his mistress and mother of his child Marie played
by Sarah Bendix).
The actors and the designers create a believable and terrifying imaginary world
that will haunt you.
This
production and story is beset by the perception of evil just outside the parameters
of the known universe, the illuminated set, the canvas walls of the circus
tent, In the deep dark space at Live Bait Theatre, this grounding theme and
perception works fabulously well with this simple set. The characters are
continually asking of the strange real or imagined sounds they hear in the
distance: "what is it"? We as viewers of this entertainment are
compelled to ask the same thing: what is it? If you are comfortable living in
between genres, allowing a story to be told and retold and yet have some
questions remain for you at the end of the performance, and all the while being
aurally and visually entertained by the design of a theatrical adventure, you
will not be disappointed by this production.