Background
Woyzeck will be Everyman’s Winter production directed by Eric Hadley. Performances will take place in November 2008 and because of the closure of the Chapter Theatre at that time it will be a touring production – venues in and around Cardiff to be announced.
The play was written by the German playwright Georg Büchner who died in 1837 at the age of 23 leaving the play awaiting a final revision. It is based on the true story of a soldier who had been executed for killing his mistress in 1824. Neglected until the beginning of the 20th Century, Büchner’s work had a great influence on German Theatre, early Film and, in the case of Woyzeck, German Opera (Alban Berg’s operatic version appeared in 1925.) Büchner’s reputation as a radical and influential playwright (Brecht would be a case in point) has continued to grow and his work is widely translated and performed.
This may all sound very esoteric but nothing could be further from the truth. Woyzeck is a powerful tragedy about the lives of ordinary, extraordinary people: what we now call the ‘underclass’ or the ‘socially dysfunctional.’ A bleak tale of casual accidents, careless lives, social and sexual humiliation and violence, it proceeds to its shocking end in a series of vividly realised scenes.
The translation is by Alan Pearlman who teaches in the Drama Department at the University of Kent and who has produced a fluent and convincing reconstruction of the text which also captures the uncompromising directness of the original. The production will have an original musical score and will be supported by live musicians.
Production will be in the week beginning 17th November.
