SVOBODA ZHOLDAK THEATRE

WOYZECK

Woyzeck and Marie in an aquarium or escaping to outer space? At any rate, this requires a great deal of hardhats. Who can free us from this narcissistic hall of mirrors, who can cut the tubes we are all tied to? The powers that be have their hands full in this production, yet they also get their just desserts. Zholdak’s Woyzeck displays humanity as if it were an exhibit in a cinemascopic glass case and thus throws an utterly theatrical, dreamlike look at the condition of being caught between woman and man, poor and rich, servant and master, drives and morals, animals and god: A surreal, anarchistic and wickedly humorous encyclopaedia of life and art from which no one can escape. Naturally, there’s a coyote in it, too.

Andriy Zholdak has received many awards, including the 2004 UNESCO Prize for the Performing Arts. His Woyzeck was staged in 2008 for the German Culture Festival in Ukraine – organised by the German embassy and the Goethe Institute Kiev – in cooperation with the ensemble of the Cherkasy State Academic Music and Drama Theatre named T. Shevchenko and with the dramaturgical support of Carl Hegemann.

ABOUT THE PLAY

WOYZECK
Soboda Zholdak Theatre

Ukraine, 2008

Directed by: Andriy Zholdak

Multimedia Performance / Drama

2h, no interval

Pictures (c) Vladimir Lupovskoy