WOYZECK_one dimensional man

Social porn from the days of late capitalism. WOYZECK_one dimensional man is a madcap comedy based on the play by Georg Büchner. But who is Woyzeck? Woyzeck is a fragment. Woyzeck is a one-dimensional man. We are all Woyzeck (kind of).

This is Georg Büchner’s iconic drama about a “crime of passion”, except not really. A revolutionary, Büchner wrote Woyzeck about the background that leads a man to commit a murderous act of a seemingly personal nature.

In this remix by Lachende Bestien, Woyzeck is bullied to the beat of Britney, unable to sleep instead of eating peas, and shaving Heitman’s ass instead of his face. Because it’s all supposed to be fun! All of it!

Warning: this production uses socially dangerous words such as “reification”, referring to critical theorists such as H. Marcuse and W. Benjamin, not to mention Teddy and Max. All subversion, however, is of course only make-believe.

For audiences 15 and up. The show involves smoking and simulated sex, and morality is threatened by opera.

About the company

The Prague alternative theatre ensemble Lachende Bestien was formed around director Michal Hába, musician Jindřich Čížek and set designer Adriana Černá in 2011. The group is considered one of the most progressive theatre ensembles in Prague.

Their debut production, 120 Days of Freedom, a variation of de Sade’s controversial novel that explored the limits of the imagination, set the tone for the direction of their work, which forces the audience into active dialogue. They gained renown with a production of Werner Schwab’s drama Pornogeography, for which they received the 2016 Josef Balvín Award. Their repertoire primarily includes original projects, but they also adapt “traditional” theatre texts, such as Ibsen’s The Enemy of the People (2019) and Sikora’s Like Lions or The Rise and Fall of Mr. B. (2023).

Lachende Bestien continues the tradition of Brecht theatre, not only through alienating acting but with an analytical view of reality. Their projects thematise and question the idea of capitalism, consistently addressing social inequality. The result is socially critical, engaged and appealing theatre that is also characterised by self-irony and insight into serious issues.