Woyzeck
Germany
an overwrite by Glossy Pain freely adapted from Georg Büchner
direction
Katharina Stoll
text
Amanda Babaei Vieira, Constanze Fröhlich, Riah Knight, Katharina Stoll, Joshua Zilinske
The story always ends this way: with the murder of Marie. But why, ask Marie, Margret and Glossy Pain.
language
German & English with English & German surtitles
duration
105 min
more about the artist
With WOYZECK, a drama that remained a fragment, Georg Büchner didn’t just catapult dramatic literature into modernity in 1836. In it, he also discusses an ideological way of thinking and speaking about people that either justifies or criticises social hierarchies or, when in doubt, “explains” nothing at all. Büchner links documentary and literature and for his title, chooses the name of a criminal whose case was publicly discussed at the time, a case that ended with the murder of a woman.
In their overwrite of the play, Katharina Stoll and her ensemble from the theatre collective Glossy Pain shift the focus onto the relationship between Woyzeck and his lover Marie from the perspective of this femicide. The production doesn’t provide any arguments for knee-jerk answers to the question of why he kills her of all people, but instead challenges the material based on today’s conceptions of living together: How do we treat each other? What kind of relationships do we want to have? Where does a man’s act of violence begin? Using playful and musical theatrical devices, this interpretation is as incisive as it is emotional.
Katharina Stoll, b. 1994, studied German Literature and Philosophy in Berlin and Istanbul. She has been working as a freelance director and writer since 2021. She is a co-founder of the feminist theatre collective Glossy Pain. Inspired by the poet and activist Audre Lorde, Glossy Pain believes in eroticism – freed from the concepts of patriarchy – as the driving force of equal, collaborative artistic work. Stoll stages ‘overwrites’ of classics, devised plays and new drama.
With Amanda Babaei Vieira, Riah Knight, Joshua Zilinske
Direction Katharina Stoll
Scenography & Costumes Wicke Naujoks Collaboration Costumes Heinke Stork Music, Composition & Sound Design Hannes Gwisdek Music & Composition Riah Knight Video Sebastian Pircher Dramaturgy Constanze Fröhlich Props Bekim Aliji Assistant Director Wisam Atfah, Julia Boxheimer Stage Management & Surtitle Operator Hannah Kohler, Lara Marquardt Photos Franziska Götzen, Sebastian Pircher, Jasper Schlieffen (Portrait Katharina Stoll)
A Production of Theater an der Ruhr in cooperation with FFT Düsseldorf supported by the Ministerium für Kultur und Wissenschaft des Landes Nordrhein-Westfalen
Special thanks go to Natascha Knieriem mit Ijsbel und Zoo Zajac for the kind approval for supporting the shoots
