Woyzeck

It is one of the most famous sentences in this feverish, world-famous play: "Every man is an abyss, it makes you dizzy when you look down." Georg Büchner explores this abyss in "Woyzeck". He depicts a murder committed out of jealousy. And he shows how a person can become capable of inhuman things when they are denied their humanity. Franz Woyzeck is such a person: he will do anything to support his girlfriend Marie and their child. He serves a captain as a simple soldier for a pittance. He allows himself to be bullied by him and ruins his physical and mental health in questionable medical experiments for which he offers himself up in return for payment. The people do not tolerate Woyzeck, they humiliate him and drive him into a corner. Driven by jealousy and driven by inner voices, he kills Marie.

"Woyzeck", written in 1836, is one of the most frequently performed and influential plays in German literature. The fact that the author Georg Büchner died young and was never able to finish his work makes the more than two dozen scenes an open text that can be created anew each time it is accessed - and can always tell a new story about a society that is so misanthropic that it creates its own monsters.

Director, author, media artist and radio playwright Luise Voigt is directing at the Düsseldorfer Schauspielhaus for the first time. Her work has received numerous awards. Her most recent guest appearances have been at the Theater Heidelberg and the Nationaltheater Weimar. Sebastian Tessenow can be seen in the role of Woyzeck and Cathleen Baumann as Marie.