UEL English PEN Society Book Reviews

This translation, by Nick Hern Books and within a series of Drama Classics, happens to be the unfinished play that Büchner was working on at the time of his death, at the tender age of 24, from typhus. I happen to be lucky enough to work behind the bar of the theatre that has loosely reproduced it, Punchdrunk, under the name; The Drowned Man: A Hollywood Fable.

This piece had me hooked from the start – more for its introduction by Kenneth McLeish, which delves with great detail into Büchner’s life, aspirations, education, and political activity. He lived in a time, from 1813-1837, where Germany was under a dictatorial autocratic rule and all people considered dissidents, whether writing or protesting, or even simply reading the writings of dissidents, were murdered, stalked by secret police, placed under house arrest, or thrown into jail – including Büchner himself, on many occasions. He led societies and published pamphlets instructing and advising citizens on how to regain control of their lives and social conditions, and renounce the dictatorship they were under to create a unified, Christian Germany. Particularly apt for our society, and interesting to see how, whilst methods of incarceration and prosecution have changed for writers and readers – now, it seems, it is more insidious – the reasons for these arrests and clamp-downs are the same – speaking out against your government. History, it appears, does repeat itself, as illustrated by PEN’s continuous campaigns against these arrests and incarcerations.

The Play Itself;

…is based on a real-life murder case, which had a very controversial trial, in which a man called Johann Christian Woyzeck murdered his lover in Leipzig, 1821. When Büchner passed away, the manuscript was found, but not published until 1879, and not performed for the first time until 1913. The scenes themselves are self-contained, in that they differ from each other and don’t lead or thread into the next. Interestingly, this is replicated in the show that I work at – the sets are built across a huge, disused post office depot and each one is different, encouraging the theatre-goers to explore the entire building.

The fact that Woyzeck is a poor soldier, with no social standing or respect whatsoever, is an interesting one. In the time this this play was written and also performed, protagonists – or, hero/main characters – were usually always someone of some social standing, to reflect the fact that the only people who could afford to attend theatre at this time were upper class or ruling class.

The story-line is really quite a heart-breaking one. It follows Woyzeck through his ill-paid job as a lowly soldier, to his home with Marie – his lover and the mother of his son (who he pays no attention to whatsoever), and his friend in the barracks, Andres. The captain he works for is constantly making an example of Woyzeck, ordering him to do such things as eat a peas-only diet for three months so he can monitor what this does to a person, making him shave him whilst he demeans him and puts him down in front of other soldiers and orderlies, and instructing him to wiggle his ears, whilst laughing at him, as if some sort of freak-show attraction. His lover, Marie, is cheating on him with the Drum Major and when he finds out, he goes mad and buys a knife to stab her with. He hears voices telling him to do it, and in a frantic but eerily calm moment, he lures her to the edge of a pond and murders her. The language used throughout is clearly that of the era, which at first I thought I’d find difficult to understand, but almost immediately – because of the emotional quality of the piece – I understood and felt every line in every scene – even the occasional humour and moments of madness or sadness.

The ending of the play is chilling – he returns to the pond to locate the knife he used, in order to hide it – and chooses to throw it in the water. Deciding it hasn't gone in far enough; he wades in, finds it, and throws it further. He just keeps wading, in the dark, further out into the pond, and it ends there. I gulped a little bit, and had a definite tear in my eye as well as clammy skin, too! Great, great piece - Büchner was a genius.

We are now 7.5 hours away from the end of our readathon! At midnight tonight, we will have read and reviewed 60 books between us in 8 weeks – and we’re SO grateful for the support we've received from our pledgers and also English PEN and other student PEN societies, we couldn't have done it without you. Look out for more details on our launch party - we'll keep you all updated.

Peace and love, Sam