Drama Classics: The World’s Great Plays at a Great Little Price
One of the most performed and influential plays in German theatre, Woyzeck is a modern classic that remains frighteningly relevant today.
Franz Woyzeck, a lowly soldier stationed in a provincial German town, is bullied by his superiors and starved by the regiment’s doctor in the name of scientific experiment. His only pleasures in life are his lover Marie and their innocent young son. But when Woyzeck learns that Marie has been unfaithful with the regiment’s handsome Drum Major, he murders his lover in a fit of rage and hopelessness.
Based on a real-life murder trial that took place in Germany in the 1820s, the play was written in 1837 but not staged until 1913.
This edition, translated by Gregory Motton, includes an introduction by Kenneth McLeish, a chronology and suggestions for further reading.
