Do you think I’m a murderer?

I’m not usually one for live theatre. Ever since I saw Nikki Webster don an unbearable Kansas accent playing Dorothy in the Wizard of Oz, I’ve avoided it at all costs. But last weekend, with no Strawberry Kisses or airbrushed FHM covers in sight, I returned to the stalls to see Woyzeck. The thought of music and lyrics written by Nick Cave and Warren Ellis and a stage performance by Tim Rogers was too remarkable to pass up. And it was amazing. The music was enchanting, almost like Tim Rogers was channeling Cave and Ellis. The performances were sickeningly stunning and the staging and costumes were ingenious. Although the play was originally written in 1837, this performance transcended all space and time. The story of Woyzeck is frighteningly modern. It’s a story of a soldier who murders his lover, which seems a classic tale, but this production directed by Michael Kantor really defies normality and launches us into a tumbling world of madness, absurdity and disturbing familiarity. Woyzeck is playing at the Malthouse Theatre in Melbourne until February 28.