Woody Sez is a a true folk hero

Camaraderie: David Lutken, second from left, as Guthrie, with fellow players Andy Teirstein, Helen Russell and Darcie Deaville
10 April 2012

Woody Guthrie, whose musical career peaked in the Thirties and Forties, was a pioneer of the modern protest song. A native of Oklahoma, he absorbed the language and cadences of the local folk music and later stitched elements of it into his own distinctive chronicles of the lives of ordinary Americans.

On his travels, which took him to California, Guthrie proved a sharp-eyed observer of the Great Depression. Exposed to the barrenness of the prairies and witnessing the westward flight of poor farm workers, he reported injustice as well as financial and environmental misfortunes.

David M Lutken and Nick Corley have devised a generous tribute that takes its name from a column Guthrie wrote for a communist newspaper. The production interweaves his music with suggestive fragments of biography; in an hour and a half we rattle through his life - and more than 30 songs.

Lutken, who plays Guthrie, is a genial presence. He's a skilful singer and musician yet strikes an air of disarming modesty while delivering a performance of real virtuosity. Alongside him Darcie Deaville, Helen J Russell and Andy Teirstein are excellent, switching between instruments (some of them unfamiliar, and none of them amplified) with an unshowy versatility. There's an obvious camaraderie among the four of them.

The music is snappy, humorous and politically subversive. Guthrie was often a sort of ventriloquist, acting out the malign fantasies of socially destructive figures. Accordingly, in a song called "Jolly Banker", he impersonates a jovial money man who talks of helping the destitute but delights in scalping them.

Without Guthrie's brand of catchy songwriting, we might never have had Bob Dylan. Guthrie's oeuvre has been pigeonholed as Leftist propaganda, on account of his commitment to "getting tough with the rich folks", yet it is infused with a comforting humanity. There are notes of bleakness but also of rapture. "This Land Is Your Land," announces the title of one song, and others emphasise the deep rewards of togetherness.

Woody Sez is the very opposite of an ostentatious, glitzy musical. Instead it's a well-crafted, enjoyable homage to an artist who deserves to be better known. It will appeal tremendously to Guthrie's fans, and should win him a few more.

Until April 2. Information: 0845 017 5584.

Woody Sez: The Words, Music And Spirit Of Woody Guthrie
Arts Theatre
Great Newport Street, Covent Garden, WC2H 7JB

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