WOYZECK@FringeNYC reviews
Gangbusters’ Motto: “Staging the modern classics with their original speed and violence.”
In the early 19th century, Georg Büchner, influenced by the true story of Johann Christian Woyzeck, a poor soldier who murdered his common-law wife in a fit of jealousy in 1821, comprised a tragedy about the disadvantaged man. Büchner died of the raging fevers of typhus in 1837, unable to finish his work. To this day, Woyzeck has become the essence of modern tragedy and has influenced dramatic movements such as, Theatre of the Absurd and Expressionism. Its significance in the world of theater history is not to be understated and to witness a live performance is psychologically invigorating. Georg Büchner’s Woyzeck is currently revitalized by The Gangbusters Theatre Company, as updated and directed by Bob McDonald, at FringeNYC.
According to Büchner’s philosophies of the inevitability of man to escape his social and biological environment, his oppression and monotony, the human condition is meaningless. Thus, in Woyzeck, we are reminded, through references to Nature, Science, God, and Man, that there truly is no freewill and man, when forced by extreme conditions, will always act instinctually, as his animalistic self. Each scene episodically portrays a moment in the decaying soldier’s life. Bob McDonald has chosen to adapt the play with a modern flair and to rearrange the scenes, I am guessing, in an effort to emphasize Woyzeck’s insanity. However, in lobotomizing this drifting soldier and scientific guinea pig, The Gangbusters Theatre Company’s version of Woyzeck loses the empathy for Woyzeck and the connection to the universal human condition. Although the production has its weaknesses, Gangbuster’s Woyzeck remains a notable historical work of art.
In this modernized version, the play opens with a child (Brighid Fleming) and the Grandmother (Jacque Lynn Colton*) telling the story of the youth who goes to heaven only to be disappointed by its realism and returns to earth to sulk in silence alone for eternity. As she concludes the story, Woyzeck (Christian Levatino) emerges in an ominous glow surrounded by eerie music carrying a machete. Through the snapshot scenes, we witness Woyzeck being tested in his environment: in the military, in the bedroom, and in science. In this version, he appears to have been lobotomized by the time he reacts in fisticuffs with the Drum Major and commits the murder of his lover, Marie. In expressionistic style, haunting ringing with a low mechanical hum echoes in the background when Woyzeck expresses his murderous visions. But this seems inconsistent with the fact that he has been lobotomized and should be devoid of human thought at this point (according to Bob McDonald’s adaptation). The tragedy concludes with a theatrical Brechtian format that has not been utilized anywhere else in the earlier parts of the production, emerging as cliché and forced.
There are strong theatrical elements and performances throughout the Gangbuster’s Woyzeck, but overall the concept appears underdeveloped and superficial. The chilling music and ambient environmental sounds, designed by Adam Phalen, are beautifully suited to the nature of the play, but they do not fully underscore the action and they rarely serve the transitions well. The lighting, designed by Chad Lefebvre, articulates the expressionistic style through his use of footlights and heavy shadows and utilizes a FringeNYC plot effectively. The challenge in modernizing the costumes becomes how to retain the socio-economic conditions and context of Büchner’s Woyzeck. Katharine Tarkulich’s costume design is simple and functional, but I struggled to believe in the poverty of this god-forsaken community. Bob McDonald’s strength in his direction is in the use of the space. But overall, this production lacks a unified concept.
Remarkable performances are given by Allen Andrews*, Steve Hamm*, Michael Laurie, and Christian Levatino. Allen Andrews* portrays a feeble Captain with convincingly “melancholic” traits. Steve Hamm’s* domineering Drum Major has an attractive, brutish quality, as he swaggers towards Marie and a violent aggressive superiority as he imposes militaristic force. Michael Laurie charms the audience at first with his delightfully naïve scientific process, but quickly becomes the menacing mad scientist using Woyzeck for his own game. Christian Levatino, as Woyzeck, is an engaging physical specimen to watch throughout the tragedy. The subtle pulses in his neck and face to show rage and frustration create a deeply tortured soul. Levatino’s adept physical realization, in his hunched shoulders, sunken, vacant eyes, quickstep shuffling, and reactionary aggression, conveys the essence of a deranged patient and soldier. It’s a sinister-pleasure to watch Levatino, as the struggling Woyzeck, encounter the challenges to his character in each scene.
The Gangbusters Theatre Company has successfully brought Georg Büchner’s Woyzeck back to the stage for The New York International Fringe Festival. Although the adaptation and interpretation may lack cohesion, I do appreciate the value of preserving the modern tragedy. It is worthwhile to be able to see an epic production such as this in FringeNYC at all, due to the production limitations of the festival. So, indeed, see Woyzeck for yourself, and if you can let the technicalities of concept slide, you’ll have an enjoyably tragic experience.
New York International Fringe Festival
Reviewed by Nat Cassidy Aug 15, 2009
The Los Angeles-based Gangbusters Theatre Company's 2009 FringeNYC production of Georg Buchner's hallucinatory tragedy Woyzeck is greater than the sum of its parts. It is a swift, fittingly brutal attack on the ill-fated German playwright/scientist's tale (based on a true event involving a poor soldier, driven mad by the medical experiments in which he was participating in order to bring in extra income for his prostitute paramour and their newborn baby), and, though some of the finer points are handled sloppily, the evening as a whole still manages to acquit itself well in the face of a canonized theatrical classic.
Woyzeck presents a number of challenges to any of its potential producers. Its only extant manuscript was unfinished (Buchner died of typhus before completing it), and its scenes were left in a questionable order, to say nothing of the stylistic difficulties it leaves to its performers. The key to performing Woyzeck lies somewhere in the same nebulous arena as Brecht and the Greeks, with a touch of Grand Guignol, Shakespeare, and children's theatre thrown in, to boot. Buchner died at 23, and was by no means a playwriting prodigy—indeed, Woyzeck is not ashamed to function at times more as a sounding board for its author's philosophical ideas about the dangers of science, the military, and the subjugation of the poor than any sort of cathartic tragedy. So, it's by no means an easy piece.
Still, there can be no doubt of the play's importance and power, and I certainly came away from Gangbusters' production with a deeper appreciation for the script.
Christian Levatino plays the title role with an endearing, stammering feeble-mindedness that counteracts his strong physical presence, and adds an extra dimension to the tragedy (nudging it further down the road to a sort of Othello by way of Of Mice and Men).
Director Bob McDonald keeps the scenes flowing nicely, his script adaptation is sound, and the production team is uniformly (no pun intended towards the costumer) excellent. Special praise must also be given to the puppet designer, Collin Velkoff, whose "astronomical horse" and its biological functions will not be easily forgotten.
What was disappointing to me, then, was a general lack of discipline that overcame a fair amount of the more dialogue-heavy scenes. The sense I got from several actors was one of hesitant improvisation—a sort of mumbled, jumbled delivery that muddied the dialogue and sounded like people were either throwing lines and comments in where they didn't belong, or just paraphrasing the lines they had. However, it is here that I must disclaim: I saw their opening performance on a Saturday at noon, which is hardly the easiest time to perform a show you've been running for months, let alone a festival production that can often be by the seat of one's pants. So I've no doubt the production will improve as the run goes on.
Gangbusters' stated objective is to stage modern classics "with their original speed and violence." They certainly have met that goal admirably with Woyzeck, and given the company's history and acclaim, I hope they return to NYC with another production very soon. In his musical adaptation of Woyzeck, Tom Waits sings that "a good man in hard to find." So is a good classical theatre company—I'm glad the Fringe brought us Gangbusters.
CLICK HERE to read the reviews from the Gangbuster's original L.A. production of Woyzeck