Georg Büchner

For decades profound importance has been attached to Büchner’s Woyzeck. It is played again and again in Germany, been translated into many foreign languages, and is played on manyst ages throughout the world. Given its significance and popularity, it is quite extraordinary how little understanding has been shown of the true nature of the text. Generations of students of modern drama have been taught to view Woyzeck as an important forerunner of open theatre, leading from Lenz to Brecht, where the assumption has been that fragmentary structure signifies and effects a breakaway from classical, so called Aristotelian theatre in favour of a more modern structure better able to represent the fragmentation of modern experience.