Woody Sez was conceived in the early 2000s, and last performed at the Edinburgh Fringe in 2009. It is the rousing story of the life and times of American folk icon Woody Guthrie, whose powerful ballads were a vehicle for social protest that railed against injustice. With all that has happened since – the 2008 crash, the increasing disparity between rich and poor, the rise of Donald Trump and associated neo-fascist ideologies – this is a pertinent time for creator David M. Lutken has chosen to bring this tale back to the Edinburgh Fringe.
Guthrie’s childhood growing up in early twentieth-century America was both an ordinary and extraordinary one. Like many, his life was marked by oil booms and dust bowls, the Great Depression and great migrations. He also had to deal with his mother’s mental illness and deterioration from Huntington’s disease (something Guthrie inherited and which led to his death), and a tragic series of fires which hurt and killed those close to him.
During his youth in Oklahoma and Texas, Guthrie was exposed to a musical melting pot, everything from traditional Scottish folk songs to African-American blues and hillbilly music. He absorbed these differing traditions and influences and, increasingly incensed by the treatment of working people by the bankers getting rich off of their labour and debts, became a travelling troubadour.
Woody Sez is a high enjoyable meander through Guthrie’s life and a high quality selection of his best-known songs. The Ballad of Tom Joad returns as a refrain throughout, a companion to Guthrie’s own journey. The production starts and ends (how could it not?) with renditions of This Land is Your Land, the finale a rousing singalong.
The cast are a joy to spend time with, engaging company and talented performers. They switch seamlessly between numerous instruments and musical styles, taking the audience from shotgun shacks in Oklahoma to New York radio studios. Raquel Chavez’s voice is a particular treat.
It is Lutkens though who is undoubtedly the star of the show. His Guthrie is loose-limbed and relaxed, a half-smile and wry demeanour hiding an iron-clad belief in what is right. He never over-acts, but lets us feel the pain of losing parents and children, and his righteous anger over the exploitation of the working man. With humour and contemplative guitar playing, Lutkens gives a totally convincing voice to Guthrie’s songs, letters and thoughts.
While the story and the production deserve as wide an audience as possible, one can’t help but wonder if the audience experience might be even better in a more intimate venue. The music is so enjoyable and expertly played, the performances so relaxed and intimate, that it is a shame to be corralled into auditorium seating in a lofty hall.
Which is not to say there are any issues with hearing either music or speech. At a time when performers increasingly seem to lack the confidence to project their voices and are mic’d up – creating something of a disconnect between actor and audience – it is a genuine pleasure to hear the cast and instruments of Woody Sez unfiltered.
Woody Sez does a magnificent job of telling Woody Guthrie’s life through his songs. They are intertwined throughout the story, trickling in and out of the script so naturally it is hard to tell where they end and the speaking begins. The dialogue itself has a lovely sense of rhythm and rhyme. The play is a consummate demonstration of how to tell tales with song, something to which the great man would doubtless have given a nod of approval.
Performed at Cowbarn, Underbelly on 20 August as part of the Edinburgh Fringe
05-30 August (not 17 or 24), 17:30
Running time: 1 hour 20 minutes, no interval
Devised by David M. Lutken
Directed by Nick Corley
Music Director: David M. Lutken
Lighting Designer: Jason Ahn
Cast: Raquel Chavez, David Finch, Nyssa Grant, David M. Lutken
Transferring to Underbelly’s Boulevard in Soho, London from 8th-19th September