Young Israeli director Netta Yaschin’s fresh, vital revival of German playwright Georg Buchner’s classic 19th century drama ‘Woyzeck’ is the latest play in Belvoir’s B Sharp 2010 season.

The protagonist in Buchner’s play, first performed in Munich in 1913, is Frank Woyzeck, a poor, working class soldier stationed in a provincial German town, living wth his girlfriend Marie and young child, born out of wedlock. In order to make ends meet he undertakes numerous menial jobs including being a barber for the garrulous local captain and agreeing to take part in a series of medical experiments performed by a very cold hearted, officious Doctor. Woyzeck’s fatal flaw is his possessiveness and jealousy, and after the Captain and the Doctor taunt him that another man’s beard hair has been found in his soup bowl, Woyzeck flies into a jealous rage, much like Othello does when the handkerchief is discovered in Desdemona’s quarters in Shakespeare’s classic tragedy.

Above all, Buchner’s play was revolutionary for its time, in presenting a main character/a tragic hero who was a poor, working class man, rather than a member of royalty or someone with a similarly high position in society.