Woyzeck

Company: New Wolsey Young Company

Venue: New Wolsey Theatre Studio:

Liam Cadzow–Webb in Woyzeck

When Georg Büchner died at the early age of 23 in 1837 it looked as though his half-finished play about a young German soldier would die with him. However, a succession of writers took pen in hand and completed the work, which is brought to the New Wolsey Studio by the theatre’s Young Company.

Woyzeck is very much an ensemble piece but Liam Cadzow–Webb excels as the eponymous protagonist, a young man – the subject of medical experimentation and military abuse – who kills his lover in a crime passionnel when Woyzeck finds that she’s been playing around with one of his superior officers.

Despite keeping a very much lighter hand on the tiller than in recent productions, director Rob Salmon has managed to extract from his young cast a powerful and evocative piece of theatre that will go a long way to securing the Wolsey Young Company’s place as one of the region’s commanding youth groups.

There were some lighting issues on the opening night and the fundamental skill of finding one’s light seems to have evaded one or two members of the cast. The final flying scene doesn’t really work in such a confined space and would have been far more effective had it been a simpler execution.

However, these flaws do not detract in any way from the overall impact of the piece, especially the opening scene, a Swiss chalet clock nightmare vision that erupts from the simple wooden set. While the sexual imagery and language might shock, this content is justified in context and a far shout from some of the less relevant youth theatre we’re used to in the East Anglian region.

Highly recommended.

PAUL COUCH

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