Drama group produces German play

Woyzeck, written in 1837 and staged for the first time in 1913, is the true story of an 18th-century drifter who was hanged for killing a prostitute in a fit of rage. Considered one of the first documentary dramas, it is based on the transcripts of Woyzeck's final trial.

Playwright Georg Buchner set out to redeem Woyzeck's character. When he died at the age of 23 from typhus, Buchner left a barely completed draft of the play. The text is brief, and has an odd elliptical style and an interchangeable reality/dream feel. Debate as to whether Buchner had fully realized his intentions continued for almost a century.

Woyzeck is a blend of simplicity and complexity, very much like the central role of Woyzeck himself, and challenges the contemporary theatrical sensibility to be solved. It carries a strong and unsettling sense of the powerful forces of nature surrounding the events, and absurd characters provoke laughter and revulsion from the audience.

The play will run at 8 p.m., February 27 and 28, March 2, and March 6 through 8. A 3 p.m. matinee will be held Sunday, March 1. Admission is $7 for the public. Tickets are available at the Common Market in Wilson Commons and at the Theater Box Office.

This season's three plays and their writers are inextricably linked in German theater history. Frank Wedekind, who wrote Spring Awakening, finally had Woyzeck staged for Buchner some 70 years after his death.

The production is directed by Mervyn Willis, the program's artistic director. It is designed by University alumnus John Fulbrook, who is a member of the Todd Theatre Troupe, composed of University alumni. The lighting design is by alumnus Joel Tishcoff, who has done the lighting for previous productions. Composer Obadiah Eaves is working on his fourth production for the Theater Program. Judith Hook, director of the University's Dance Program, is staging the dances, and Panni Speirs, formerly of the Hungarian State Circus in Budapest, is staging the fairground sequence.

Like previous productions Speakeasy (in 1995) and Coriolanus (in 1996), Woyzeck will be staged as part of a La MaMa/University Workshop Series. The production, featuring the Todd Theatre Troupe, will also give a three-week run at the La MaMa's Galleria Theater beginning May 15.

For more information, call x5-4088.