The Edinburgh Fringe is upon us and to get prepared for another Scottish summer Read About Stuff is running a ‘Five From The Fringe’ interview series, where creative teams answer five questions about their upcoming Festival shows.
In this interview, I chat to David Lutken about Woody Sez: The Life & Music of Woody Guthrie.
Can you tell me a little about your show and what audiences can expect?
Our show is a four-person musical – “Woody Sez: The Life & Music of Woody Guthrie”. It’s a biographical account of one of the US’s greatest protest singer/songwriters. His career encompassed the Great Depression and the Dust Bowl, the Labour Movement, WWII and the very beginnings of the Civil Rights struggle in America.
Audiences can expect an unforgettable story woven together with brilliant satire, incisive social commentary, and an incredible variety of songs – completely acoustic and authentic, much as Woody and his many collaborators, friends, and co-conspirators would have performed them – Resistance Music at it’s very best.
The autobiographical ‘book’ adds dimension and depth to his music, discovering the difficult, restless, at times tragic life led by the self-styled “voice of the common people”.
We hope folks will laugh and cry and sing along.
What drew you to this specific story, and why does it belong at the Edinburgh Fringe?
I suppose singing and playing folk music all my life drew me to Woody’s story.
It belongs in Edinburgh because for almost 80 years, the Fringe has given a voice and an opportunity to folks outside “the Establishment”. Woody Guthrie made his life and career outside any and every “Establishment” – his purpose was always to represent and give voice to the people in our society who felt they had none.
What has been the biggest challenge in bringing this production to life?
The challenges in bringing any production to life are numerous, and sometimes impossible to anticipate. (Airlines changing their rules about checking guitars and banjos can be a challenge!) Our group has been very fortunate over many years and 80 or 90 productions in many countries.
Our biggest challenge, I suppose, is trying to anticipate how current political events around the world make Woody’s music seem more relevant every day!
How does the design of your show (set, sound, or lighting) impact the presentation of your story?
“Woody Sez” was devised and designed to be very flexible. We’ve done Festival productions in all manner of venues – completely acoustically – in basements, banks, storefronts and streets. We’ve had many theatrical productions with a beautiful set, lights and authentic costumes (still with no mikes, though) We do our best to rise to any occasion!
If you could sum up the show in one word or phrase, what would it be and why?
I think the title is a pretty good summation: “Woody Sez”, but that does assume some name-recognition. You could also say “original protest singer” (not to indicate that he was first, but he was certainly original) It might all be summed up as: “the Autobiography and Songs of an Original Resister”
I want folks to know it’s political, it’s autobiographical, historical, and above all, musical!
Woody Sez: The Life & Music of Woody Guthrie runs at Underbelly Bristo Square (Venue 302) from 5th – 30th August. Tickets can be purchased here: https://www.edfringe.com/tickets/whats-on/woody-sez-the-life-and-music-of-woody-guthrie
