Woody Sez: The Life & Music of Woody Guthrie at Cowbarn at Underbelly, Bristo Square

Woody Sez: The Life & Music of Woody Guthrie is an internationally celebrated musical built around the songs and autobiographical writings of American folk icon Woody Guthrie, returning to the Edinburgh Festival Fringe nearly two decades after its 2007 debut. Performed by a cast of four actor-musicians playing more than twenty instruments, the production weaves live performances of over two dozen of Guthrie's songs with stories drawn from his life, spanning the Dust Bowl, the Great Depression, wartime service, and his tragic death from Huntington's Disease in 1967. David M. Lutken, who devised the show with director Nick Corley and cast members Darcie Deaville, Helen Jean Russell and Andy Tierstein, reprises the role of Guthrie, drawing from works including Bound for Glory and Guthrie's 1930s-40s newspaper column Woody Sez. The production combines the intimacy of a folk music session with narration, character and song, balancing humour, spontaneity and joy with the hardship and hope that informed both Guthrie's life and writing.