TEHRAN – German dramatist Georg Buchner’s play “Woyzeck” is currently on stage at the Orkideh Hall of Tehran’s Shahrzad Theater Complex.

Mohammadreza Agah is the director of the play starring Yeganeh Mamurian, Saeid Javedan, Pedram Zamani, Mohammad Ashkan, Milad Salehvand and Sajjad Mir.

In this play, the title character is a religious man preoccupied with sin and guilt. An army barber, he endures psychological humiliation by his captain and painful physical experimentation by his doctor to make extra money for Marie, his wife, and their child. Woyzeck is jealous of Marie’s affair with a drum major. Filled with rage, he explodes into violence.

Buchner left “Woyzeck” incomplete at his death in 1837, but it has been posthumously “finished” by a variety of authors, editors and translators. 

Woyzeck deals with the dehumanizing effects of doctors and the military on a young man’s life. It is often seen as a working-class tragedy, though it can also be viewed as having another dimension, portraying the perennial tragedy of human jealousy.

The play was admired both by the German naturalist Gerhart Hauptmann and, subsequently, by expressionist playwrights. 

“Woyzeck” has become one of the most performed and influential plays in the German theater repertory.

The play has previously been performed by several Iranian troupes.

With the Golbang Theater Group, Qasem Tangsirnejad and Mahsa Rahsepar co-directed “Woyzeck” at the Ginger Theater Festival, an international festival of youth running in the Russian city of Tula in 2021.

The group also staged the play at the 17th HIGH FEST International Performing Arts Festival in Yerevan, Armenia, in 2019.

Reza Servati also directed “Woyzeck” at Piccolo Teatro in Milan, Italy and in Nancy, France, in 2017. His troupe had performed the play at Tehran’s Hafez Hall during winter 2013.

Photo: A poster for “Woyzeck” on stage at Tehran’s Orkideh Hall. 

MMS/YAW