Marie and Margret are best friends - they share a flat and their lives, even when Franz Woyzeck, their neighbour, comes along and falls in love with Marie. Marie and Woyzeck - a love that brings two very different people together and then shifts, almost imperceptibly, silently - until it ends in brute force. Marie, Margret and Woyzeck - the story of a web of relationships that questions our ideas of love, friendship and care.
This rewriting of Woyzeck shifts the perspective to the everyday life and living environment of young people and poses the essential questions that are already present in Büchner's ambivalent Woyzeck character from 1836. Today, they are more relevant than ever: What makes men become perpetrators? What ideas of relationships do we live by? Is a language other than that of violence possible?
Excerpt from the jury's statement:
“The rewriting of Glossy Pain gives the play WOYZECK a new narrative perspective, Marie's perspective, making it a radically feminist WOYZECK that ends with an impressive final monologue."
n the production WOYZECK by the Theater an der Ruhr Mülheim, the audience encounters a Woyzeck transferred to the present day. The audience is given direct insights into the lives of Marie and her friend and Woyzeck, who lives in the same house. Marie and her friend live together in the shared flat, where they do yoga or make music, cook together and enjoy life. Woyzeck, the new neighbour moving into the house, quickly falls in love with Marie. The relationship begins sensitively and lovingly, but takes a turn when Marie explains her understanding of relationships to Woyzeck. For Marie, it is important to be free and not to belong to anyone. Woyzeck has no sole claim on her. This positioning is Marie's undoing in the end. At the centre of the play is the critical connection between relationships and ownership, alternative concepts of relationships are negotiated. The theoretical superstructure is formed by the book "Radikale Zärtlichkeit" by author Şeyda Kurt. The rewriting of Glossy Pain gives the play WOYZECK a new narrative perspective, Marie's perspective, making it a radically feminist WOYZECK that ends with an impressive final monologue. Music and large-scale video projections create a young, contemporary atmosphere that brings the play even more strongly into the present.
The Theater an der Ruhr in Mülheim is a place for encounters and dialogue. A theatre that is open to everyone. Since its foundation in 1980, its artistic, structural and economic organisation has been a unique model in the theatre landscape. With the Junges Theater an der Ruhr, it addresses young people in particular with special productions, theatre education programmes and play workshops.
Note:
The production uses large-scale videos with fast cuts and light pulses, which can trigger photosensitive epileptic seizures in people with epilepsy.
Production
Theater an der Ruhr, Mülheim
in co-operation with the FFT Düsseldorf
freely adapted from Georg Büchner
a rewriting of Glossy Pain
Director: Katharina Stoll
with: Amanda Babaei Vieira, Riah Knight, Joshua Zilinske
Music / Composition / Sound design: Hannes Gwisdek
Music / Composition: Riah Knight
video: Sebastian Pircher
Stage and costume: Wicke Naujoks
Costumes: Heinke Stork
Props: Bekim Aliji
Dramaturgy: Constanze Fröhlich
Assistant directors: Julia Boxheimer, Wisam Atfah
Evening theatre management and surtitling: Hannah Köhler and Lara Marquardt
Trainee: Ines Thöle
Theatre pedagogy: Julia Meschede
Performance rights: with the theatre
Funded by the Ministry of Culture and Science of the State of North Rhine-Westphalia