Labute, N: Woyzeck

Award-winning playwright Neil LaBute’s powerful adaptation of Georg Büchner’s Woyzeck embraces the glittering darkness of the play’s violent, erotic, inhumane world and uncompromisingly makes it his own.

Woyzeck’s girlfriend, Marie, by whom he’s fathered a child; Marie’s overpowering desire for the alluring Drum-Major; and the murderous outcome of this oppressive admixture of circumstances comprises one of the bleakest works of world literature. It is also considered by many to mark the beginning of modern drama.

From his opening in an operating theatre and then scene by macabre scene, Neil LaBute imbues this classic with his singular intensity and moral vision, as he takes it to its nightmarish conclusion. Included in this volume is LaBute’s provocative new monologue “Kandahar,” in which a soldier back from Afghanistan calmly explains his devastating actions of the day before. A gripping stand-alone piece, this short work is also a trenchant modern-day exploration of the potent and enduring themes of Woyzeck.