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Theater Stap!

Woyzeck 2001

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Doctor: 'I saw you Woyzeck! Pissing in the streets, against the wall. Like a dog!'

 

Woyzeck: 'But, doctor, when nature calls!'

A classic! Based on a article in a 19th century newspaper. A very thin story indeed of a simple soldier, humiliated and abused bij the people around hin. And who, in the end, kills his adulterous wife. Why do we choose a play like that? Because Theater Stap always interprets a play rigourously idiosyncratically. Because the disabled actors certainly enhance this particular subject. Because here the unrefined and the poetical meet.

 

When we make abstraction of the enormous banality of the facts in 'Woyzeck', we fall into an abyss. Wat is striking in Büchner's fragmentary original is the constant presence of music. Far from demystifying 'Woyzeck' into a rather banal case-study, director Marc Bryssinck aims at making this abstract musical language audible.

 

Thus we hear a melancholic captain, playing the bluesharp, a vulgar sergeant, getting excited over his drum, Marie, torn down bij extatic go-go girls and a techno-cover of 'I love a man in uniform'.

 

And Woyzeck, surrounded by instruments as old as the world, weaving a mystical aura around the deceptively simple soldier.

Wat are they thinking! Are those actors now going to make music as well?!

 

Certainly, Theater Stap takes part in the wave of recent musical theatrical performances.

 

Flirting with what's fashionable?

 

No, Büchner himself puts us on these musical rails. And Stap has never been afraid of a new challenge. This is going to be a particular difficult and exciting one.

 

 

timeline

"Woyzeck" played for the first time in March 2001. We played 14 times in Flanders and the last time in Den Haag.

 

credits

Author : Büchner

Director : Marc Bryssinck

Lighting : Harry Cole 

Costumes : Anne Marthe Zomer

Scenography : Johan Daenen

Photography : Koen Broos

Cast :

Luc Loots: Woyzeck

Kathleen Frison: Marie

Jan Goris: Tamboer-majoor

Gert Wellens: dokter/tamboer

Els van Gils: Andres

Nadine Van Miert: Medium/waterpercussie

Nancy Schellekens (percussie)

Cathérine Springuel (keyboard - verpleegster)

Rik van Raak (krachtpatser)

Kristien Van Roy (slangemens)

Martine Derey (bruiteur)

Agnes Fleerackers (dame met de hond)

Ann Dockx (equilibrist)

Kris Hufkens (tamboer - dokter grijzenbaard)

Erna Roef (slangemens)

Marc Wagemans (tamboer - harmonica)

Heidi Hendricks (buurvrouw - percussie)

press

De Morgen April 2001 2001

The key to Stap's Woyzeck are sounds and music. With very simple means the actors succeed in creating a musical atmosphere. In this performance fulle of atmosphere, Bryssinck certainly is not afraid to touch some very ambiguous and difficult topics. This Woyzeck is one for the road. It keeps you busy even after you have left the theatre.

Gazet van Antwerpen April 2001 2001

Playing Woyzeck with mentally disabled actors looks at first sight as very risky. Theater Stap plays with taboos. Sex, violence and perversity on stage. Four drummers undress on the music of 'I love a man in a uniform'. Four actrices wriggle and giggle around them. At the end, the whole community turns against Woyzeck: the drop-outs discriminating themselves. A very shocking scene.

De Standaard March 2001 2001

Music plays an important part in the play. As a means of showing Woyzeck's internal turmoil. Luc Loots works magic with his feet, drawing music from the floor. Together with the acting you get a very credible and harrowing Woyzeck. Unforgettable is the striptease of four actors. Bryssinck uses that moment to grind a few axes and telling us something about sex, violence and perversity. By not avoiding these taboos, Bryssinck makes clear that his actors are human beings just as you and me. It' very shocking to see the same actors later on turning against and humiliating Woyzeck.