A Noise Within (ANW), the acclaimed classical repertory theatre, presents a free, staged reading of Georg Büchner's Woyzeck, directed by Jeremy Rabb and performed by A Noise Within's resident company, on Monday, January 26 at 7 pm as part of Words Within, their ongoing series of free play readings by resident artists. Please RSVP via phone to 626-356-3100 x1 to reserve your seat.
The cast includes
Alan Blumenfeld* as Captain,
Robertson Dean* as Doctor, Freddy Douglas* as Drum Major, Amin El-Gamal* as Horse/Karl,
Mitchell Edmonds* as Barker/Second Journeyman, Alison Elliott as Margaret/Monkey, Rafael Goldstein* as Woyzeck,
William Dennis Hunt* as First Journeyman/Old Man, Victoria
Yvonne Martinez as Girl/Child,
Carolyn Ratteray* as Marie, Stephen Rockwell* as Andres, Ricardo Salinas as Sargent/Boy,
Deborah Strang* as Grandmother/Stage Directions, and
Time Winters* as Showman/Jew.* Indicates member of Actors' Equity Association
Woyzeck is a stage play written by Georg Büchner. He left the work incomplete at his death, but it has been posthumously "finished" by a variety of authors, editors and translators.
Woyzeck has become one of the most performed and influential plays in the German theatre repertory. Büchner probably began writing the play between June and September 1836. It remained in a fragmentary state at the time of his early death in 1837. Woyzeck was first published in 1879 in a heavily reworked version by Karl Emil Franzos. It was not performed until November 8, 1913 at the Residenztheater, Munich, where it was produced by
Max Reinhardt.
Woyzeck deals with the dehumanizing effects of doctors and the military on a young man's life. It is often seen as 'working class' tragedy, though it can also be viewed as having another dimension, portraying the 'perennial tragedy of human jealousy'. The play was admired both by the German naturalist
Gerhart Hauptmann and, subsequently, by expressionist playwrights. It is loosely based on the true story of Johann Christian Woyzeck, a Leipzig wigmaker who later became a soldier. In 1821, Woyzeck, in a fit of jealousy, murdered Christiane Woost, a widow with whom he had been living. He was later publicly beheaded.
