Woyzeck

Absolutely fantastic. Darkly humorous and sad.

Read this during my grammar school year for German classes. Quite interesting / unexpected for me, being the green teenager that I was back then.
Liked it even better when we saw the play. That made the whole story come to life even more.

Wikipedia: Woyzeck is a stage play written by Georg Büchner. He left the work incomplete at his death, but it has been variously and posthumously "finished" by a variety of authors, editors and translators.
Based on the true story of Friedrich Johann Franz Woyzeck and related to the German expressionist style, Woyzeck concerns the dehumanizing effects of doctors, the military, and women on a young man's life. It is often seen as 'working class' tragedy and it's a difficult play to categorise.
Woyzeck has seen many translations, including an adaptation into an opera by Alban Berg (Wozzeck), a movie by Werner Herzog, and a musical by Robert Wilson and Tom Waits, the songs from which are on Waits's Blood Money album. Nick Cave has also show more written music for the Icelandic production of the play.
Woyzeck is a comment on social conditions as well as an exploration of complex themes such as poverty. Woyzeck is considered as morally lacking by other characters of higher status, such as the Captain, particularly in the scene in which Woyzeck shaves the Captain. The Captain links wealth and status with morality suggesting Woyzeck cannot have morals as he is poor.
It is the exploitation of the character Woyzeck by the Doctor and the Captain which ultimately pushes him over the edge. show less

Buchner's play is a strong story, albeit incredibly grim and depressing. The title character is driven insane by military routine and scientific over-analysis. The material looks at insanity, dehumanisation and people driven to extremes. While most "murder plays" focus on plot and atmosphere rather than character (i.e. Hitchcock's Psycho), Woyzeck takes us slowly and elegantly into the protagonist's psyche in such a way that the final murder scene is an explosion of theatrical poetry.

It is a genuine pity that Büchner was unable to complete this play. The fragment that was published after his untimely death at the age of 23, demonstrates his superior skills as a dramatist. It is based on an historical event. In a fit of jealousy, Woyzeck murders his lover. The historical figure was condemned to death and executed.
Several authors completed Büchner's original fragment and Woyzeck has become one of the more frequently performed plays in German theatres.

Dieses Drama war Thema meiner Abiturprüfung in Deutsch. Es eignet sich perfekt dazu, altmodisches und modernes Drama miteinander zu vergleichen, da es viele charakteristische Merkmale aufweist. Auch die Handlung an sich ist sehr interessant, wenn auch der Charakter Woyzecks, dem Leser das ein ums andere Mal etwas abstrakt vorkommen mag. Im Gegensatz zu anderen Dramen ist es leichter zu verstehen und man kann dem Ganzen etwas mehr folgen.

Die Hauptperson Woyzeck ist sehr arm und wird von der Gesellschaft eher wie eine Sache, ein Objekt behandelt. Besonders beim Doktor, der Woyzeck als Versuchskaninchen benutzt, wird das sehr deutlich.
Woyzecks Psyche ist auch stark angeschlagen, ständig hört er Stimmen und fühlt sich verfolgt. Seine Freundin Marie, mit der er ein Kind hat, betrügt ihn und eigentlich hat er nur seinen besten Freund Andres.
Das Werk ist ein Fragment. Die Reihenfolge der Szenen variiert. Manche finde ich sehr interessant, andere wiederum habe ich nicht so recht verstanden und passten irgendwie nicht so zum Rest.
Obwohl es mich doch fasziniert, wie sehr sich die damaligen Schriftsteller schon für die menschliche Psyche interessierten, konnte mich dieses show more Werk nicht voll und ganz überzeugen! show less