Georg Büchner died in 1837 with his masterpiece unfinished – a masterpiece because it’s unfinished, perhaps. The text of Woyzeck is incomplete, the scenes disordered. Based on a real-life murder, it gives naturalism a swerve, and the holes and fractures have lured many subsequent theatre artists. (The one that sticks with me is Robert Wilson’s collaboration with Tom Waits: stylised, … [Read more...]
Archives for May 2017
Never such innocence again
We huddled from the rain under a small platform shelter at Hackney Wick the other night. Which was great, because it meant eavesdropping without strain on the couple arguing about This Beautiful Future, the play we’d just seen at the Yard Theatre. An amicable but irreconcilable disagreement, it boiled down to this: HER: Lovely! HIM: Offensive! HER: Baby chicks! HIM: Nazis! Then the train … [Read more...]