ABSTRACT
The unresolved nature of Woyzeck and Marie’s relationship, as well as their situation of social and economic precarity enter the theatre by means of the aesthetic gesture of fragmentation. Woyzeck’s tragic story was set in a socially-deprived city suburb, a no-man’s land of tower-block estates, criminal gangs and unemployment. Some approaches to Woyzeck in performance have attempted to make the incoherent coherent and provide elaborate backstories in order to fill in the gaps of the original text and to drive home a particular socially-relevant message. The overstepping of moral boundaries through acts of transgression is key to tragic theatre and prominent in Woyzeck’s presentation of the themes of sexual desire and death. The audience, wearing white masks, was immersed in the action and free to roam around the locations, experiencing fragments of a narrative which echoed Woyzeck’s themes of violence, lust and madness.
