• RWhen I tell people that I’ve taken Buchner’s Woyzeck and completely rewritten it, the first question I always get asked is ‘Why?’, usually followed by an expression of shock that I’ve taken such liberties with the original script. Let’s say that this article my way of dealing with all those shocked faces at once.

To start with the first question – why? To which I respond that theatre is not an inert museum piece. We, as a country, have got into the habit of seeing theatre as performed English Literature that we can comfortably sit through and admire. That is not theatre – that is English Literature. What makes theatre, theatre, is that it is alive and kicking and immediate. There is something instant and pure about sitting in the same dark room as the creators and watching a piece of art that will never again be replicated in the same way. Very little art affects people in that way, and losing this aspect of theatre is an absolute tragedy. And if any playwright before the turn of the 20th Century knew that, it was Buchner. Buchner was a political activist who was constantly escaping from the government. He died at the age of 23 and all of his work screamed for justice in his time. If he saw his work put on like a museum piece, he would be pretty angry.

Would he want a complete rewrite? I don’t know. But I’m sure that he would understand. His play is fuelled by anger at injustice and the wrongs of the world. My version very much comes from the same place. It is angry, violent and expresses (almost) everything that makes me angry with the world. Behind the eyes of Woyzeck I can almost see myself screaming to be let out, wanting to be free from the world and its social restrictions, but never quite being able to break loose. The way the characters interact, the way they behave and above all the way they talk in the play has been completely thrust on them by their upbringing. Everything is taken to the extreme to brutally satirise the ways in which we look at the world.

It is not a nice play. Don’t come along to see a nice play. It’s perhaps not even Buchner’s play. So don’t come along expecting to see a faithful rendition of that. I’m not really sure how people are going to react. I’m sure some people will think it’s an abomination (in which case I’ll console myself that the original play was banned for fifty-odd years after writing), but I’m also sure that it will resonate with some people. Beneath all the brutality and craziness, it is the most deeply personal play I’ve directed, so please, if you come along, remember that there’s far more to it than initially meets the eye.