MUST SEE: Woyzeck at Modern Sweater

Woyzeck fucking rocks

Molly Serenduke

If you’re expecting a cushy Midtown theater for an adaptation of a Disney movie, then Adult Film’s outstanding production of Woyzeck is decidedly not for you. The site-specific Ridgewood theater - a former sweater factory - is hot and sweaty, but the aesthetics of the space itself are incorporated wonderfully into a show that makes it impossible to be bored.

Director Seth Bockley’s collaboration with Adult Film yields a play packed with dynamic visual elements that all serve one singular, cohesive vision. Inventive and strangely on-point decisions all fit together organically for a tornado of a show that never feels like the almost-Lynchian aesthetic is faux; there’s no move that feels out of place. A woman giving birth to an accordion in the opening scene starts establishing the rules of this world, one of surprising storytelling techniques that use the ever-evolving set and lights excellently. The music is perfect. The acting is great. The pace is steady and self-assured.

Photo by Geve Penn

Admittedly, this unfinished play by Georg Büchner can leave you a bit confused at times. There’s a balancing act between not allowing certain confusions to take you out of the play and allowing the avant-garde nature of the production to take hold. I do think knowing a bit about the piece will allow you to take some confusing elements in stride and not allow them to have you wander off, concerned that you might’ve missed something. It’s all right there in front of you, is the takeaway. Stay on the ride, and you’ll be rewarded.

What Adult Film proves here is that they have the navigation, the coordinates, aimed in the correct direction. This show has style, grit and passion bursting from its seams. New York’s theater scene can sometimes feel a bit too crowded with somewhat boring shows intended solely for an academic audience, or shows that present a faux sophistication that really amount to a piece that takes no chances. Woyzeck’s story of madness and love is held back a touch by some confusing elements, but in totality, it excels.

Adult Film asserts themselves as a company that you’ll be gravely out of touch if you mistakenly ignore.