Richard de Lisle with Katharine Hurst in Woyzeck. Picture by Robin Crossley.
STAGE REVIEWHOMICIDAL tragedy gets a modern re-vamp in a mainland theatre company’s production of Woyzeck.
The three-person cast of Scene Productions, a theatrical group specialising in producing bold, physical theatre, performed in Ryde School hall on Friday.
The company had given a workshop in performance techniques, and practitioner styles, earlier in the day for the sixth form theatre studies students of both Ryde School and Sandown High School and the participants turned out to see the evening performance.
Woyzeck, a play originally written by Georg Buchner in the 19th century — about a working-class German soldier struggling with the early forms of psychosis from tormenting social pressures, who, in a jealous rage, stabs his common-law wife to death after the discovery of her infidelity — took a contemporary twist in the evening’s production, juxtaposing hilarity with horror.
Fusing elements of the macabre, black humour, risque wit, audience interaction, puppetry, blood-curdling sound effects, and live music and song, the three-person cast with their non-stop dynamism completely captivated the audience. Richard de Lisle, playing Woyzeck and the handsome Drum Major, was excellent.
His charismatic portrayal of the latter closely resembled Blackadder’s Flashheart and, with crotch-thrusts a-plenty, had the audience in fits of laughter.
Elizabeth Rainbow, who played Marie, Woyzeck’s wife, and other parts was also very entertaining.
But leading the performance was Katharine Hurst, one of the company directors, whose energy and enthralling range of unique characters, including a sadistic lunatic doctor and a General Blimp-like officer, gave a glowing performance.
The enigmatic acting, innovative ideas, including the particularly effective use of a mini Woyzeck puppet and the witty script, made the show nothing short of inspired.
Lou Alabaster and Andrew Butcher, both sixth-form students studying at Sandown High, said the earlier workshop really helped with their course studies.
Miss Alabaster added: "It was brilliant, I loved it."