The CNT Ivan pl. Zajc Croatian drama is preparing the premiere of Georg Büchner’s Woyzeck, one of the most frequently performed and influential plays in German language. The premiere is on Friday 12th January 2018 at 19:30 hours. Woyzeck is directed by Anica Tomić, Jelena Kovačić is the dramaturge, Nenad Kovačić is the composer, Anica Tomić and Dalibor Laginja are set designers, Sandra Dekanić is the costimographer, Mila Čuljak is the movement director, lighting design is by Deni Šesnić while Zrinka Kolak Fabijan is the language coach.
Dean Krivačić is in the leading role of soldier Franz Woyzeck. His common-law wife is played by Hana Selimović, guest from the Belgrade National Theatre. Olivera Baljak is in the role of military Doctor, Jasmin Mekić of Captain, Dražen Mikulić of Drum-Major, Margreth is Anastazija Balaž, Biljana Torić is Grandmother, Leon Lučev is Karl, while Nikola Nedić is Showman.
“Our Woyzeck is created in the emotional clashes of the worlds of those who have the power over that of the deprived, the poor and forsaken ones. This is also the issue of social class, making us wonder whether a poor man can have morality. Namely, what is the relation between money and morality? Do we have to be able to afford morality?” concludes the director Anica Tomić.
180 years ago, Georg Büchner was the first playwright to give leading roles to the poor and deprived, also the first to use the technique to be used not before the second half of the 20th century by numerous dramatists, namely, that of documentarism. Büchner had created Woyzeck a whole century before the Expressionism became such a force of the German theatre, painting and film.
There is no final text of Woyzeck as, before finishing the play, Büchner died from typhus in his 23rd year, which leaves freedom to authors, but also a responsible task to create their own ending. This is why there are a number of all kinds of differences between a Woyzeck and a Woyzeck.
The play was created according to the real-life criminal case from the year 1820, when ex-soldier Johann Christian Woyzeck murdered his mistress out of jealousy, due to which he was executed in public, at the main square in Leipzig. As a former student of medicine, Büchner became interested in this case, seeing in it the power of the story and the clash between having and not having, torture and a constant humiliation of a small man. Woyzeck is said to be the first anti-hero. Georg Büchner wrote the play between 1835 and 1837, while the text was found after 40 years only. Austrian writer and journalist Karl Emil Franzos performed the essential task by publishing Büchner’s works. In order to obtain them, he treated the discovered manuscripts with special chemicals that help the ink come to the surface. Woyzeck had its premiere at the Residenztheater in Munich only in 1913. The character of Woyzeck has been the inspiration for various artists ever since.
The famous theatre tandem Tomić – Kovačić deal with the specific character of Woyzeck and his author at the Rijeka Theatre, having won a great number of most significant awards for the best directions, devised theatre pieces, dramatic texts, etc. It is the first time that Anica Tomić collaborates with the Rijeka Croatian drama.
Hana Selimović, young Belgrade theatre and film actress (1987), has played memorable roles one after another; she is a favourite actress of both spectators and the critics, having won an impressive number of credits. She has collaborated with some of the most important directors in this part of the world, having received numerous awards and credits, such as the Sterija’s Award for the Best Actress, Zoran Radmilović Award for Acting Excellence, Pua Film Festival Award in France, Zlatni smeh Award, Award for the Best Actress of the International Small Scene Theatre Festival in Rijeka, Milivoje Živanović Award at the Actors’ Festival in Požarevac, was proclaimed as the Best Actress of the Year at the Atelje 212 Theatre, etc. Kisses, White, White World, Tamara’s Absence, The Disobedient, Dobrica and The Absurd Scam are only some of the films in which she has featured. She has been member of the Belgrade National Theatre Drama Ensemble since the beginning of this year.
Zagreb actor Dean Krivačić (1977) has been member of the CNT Ivan pl. Zajc Croatian Drama in Rijeka since the year 2015; having been member of the &TD Theatre in Zagreb until the former Rijeka Theatre general manager Oliver Frljić invited him to come to Rijeka. Krivačić has worked with a number of directors, as Branko Brezovec, Miran Kurspahić, Borut Šeparović, Mario Kovač, Saša Anočić and Oliver Frljić, having also featured in plays for children. He has also had a few roles in films and in TV series, having synchronised a number of animated films as well. He has received the Croatian Theatre Award for the best Male Role, the Naj naj naj Festival Awards, etc.
Reruns of Woyzeck are on 13th January at 18 hours and on 17th, 18th, 19th and 20th January at 19:30 hours.
In co-operation of the Rijeka Art-kino, Ivan pl. Zajc CNT and the Goethe Institut Kroatien, Werner Herzog’s film Woyzeck (82 min), made in 1979, starring Klaus Kinski and Eva Mattes in leading roles, will be shown in the Art-kino on Tuesday 16th January. A discussion entitled “Woyzeck in theatre and on film” with the Rijeka Theatre Woyzeck team of authors will follow the film.
