Woyzech at the Haulbowline Naval Base

The moon came out on cue at the height of the theatrical lunacy at the Naval base in Haulbowline last night.

Corcadorca strung atmospheric lights and freak show effects from all kinds of places to weave their particular site specific magic, but the brief appearance of the moon in the otherwise cloudy sky brought the most appropriate kind of light.

Woyzech - the seaman whose mind capsizes – begins in the moral straightjacket of a life in uniform, but as his wife betrays him and surrenders to primal sexual forces he surrenders to his own demons.

This scenario gives director, Pat Kiernan, an open licence on the space they have chosen. Key scenes are played out on the water’s edge but it is in and around the courtyards and strangely atmospheric buildings of the base that most of the drama takes place.

A fight scene played out in the muddy puddles of the main yard went on for so long that the audience was drawn into to exhausting violence of the encounter. Characters appear in various windows as a circus freak-shows roll by below.

The philosophical meanderings of the young Georg Buchner in his 1836 play put the central character in the wringer with his sense of decency and duty jumbled around with the freakiness of life and those who rule over him. To describe in passing one of last night’s scenes of the captain and the scientist at the chapel door while freaks and soldiers howl inside, feels like stealing a line from the young Bob Dylan.

This extremely stylish, very well acted and vividly imagined production is a high profile centrepiece of the Midsummer Festival and it is the kind of work that people who love theatre could love. But the lunacy of the play – and the obscurity that comes with parts of it – might leave those who are

lukewarm about theatre to begin with, feeling out in the cold in Haulbowline.

David Pearse’s superb central performance and the spooky ambiance given by Mel Mercier’s music, Paul Keogan’s inventive design and Kiernan’s meticulous direction make sure the work worms its way into the brain.