Woyzeck

The NHB Drama Classics series presents the world's greatest plays in affordable, highly readable editions for students, actors and theatregoers. The hallmarks of the series are accessible introductions (focussing on the play's theatrical and historical background, together with an author biography, key dates and suggestions for further reading) and the complete text, uncluttered with footnotes. The translations, by leading experts in the field, are accurate and above all actable. The editions of English-language plays include a glossary of unusual words and phrases to aid understanding. Woyzeck is one of the most performed and influential plays in German theatre. 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.

Georg Büchner (1813-1837) was a German dramatist and writer of poetry and prose. His plays include Danton's Death, Leonce and Lena and Woyzeck.