Georg Büchner wrote Woyzeck in 1837, the year he died, aged 23. There was no definitive text, just fragments of paper. It wasn’t performed for more than 70 years. It is widely regarded as the first modern play and a forerunner of the social dramas of the 19th century. Alban Berg’s 1925 adaptation memorably converted it for opera.
This bleak and brutal story is based on a real-life murder case. It’s written in a series of short, sharp, expressionistic scenes, and is a fierce indictment of the way people treats people on the bottom rung of the society’s ladder.
