Genetik Woyzeck
Video conferencing with deadly results, after Georg Büchner
Performance Digital Culture Theatre & Performance
Genetik Woyzeck by Harriet Maria & Peter Meining aka norton.commander.productions. translates Büchner’s classic into the media age in a genius manner: On stage, only a sofa. Actor Lars Rudolph sits down on it. He plays Woyzeck in a sensational solo performance – raw, eccentric, in conflict with himself and a relentlessly rushing video machinery on a tight schedule. His antagonists do not appear in person; they are banished onto two gigantic screens that float above the scene, as living, overpowering images. Marie, Andres, the Captain, the Doctor, and the Drum Major are portrayed by a star-studded line-up; among them are Blixa Bargeld, Ben Becker, Frank Castorf, Nick Cave, Herbert Fritsch, Irm Hermann, Udo Lindenberg, Markus Lüpertz, Eva Mattes, Christoph Schlingensief, Hanna Schygulla, Otto Sander, Ulrich Wildgruber, and Martin Wuttke. 29 years after the premiere, the restaging of this groundbreaking multimedia performance raises current issues on AI, populism, and “fake news”.
reviews
cast
Harriet Maria Meining, Peter Meining, Lars Rudolph
As Woyzeck: Lars Rudolph
Also starring: Blixa Bargeld, Ben Becker, Frank Castorf, Nick Cave, Dietmar Diesner, Herbert Fritsch, Irm Hermann, Udo Lindenberg, Markus Lüpertz, Joachim Maaz, Eva Mattes, Rebecca Meining, Ulrich Meyer, Dr. Motte, Pigor and Eichhorn, Uwe Preuss, Heinz Rennhack, Hans Scheuerecker, Christoph Schlingensief, Alexander Schröder, Hanna Schygulla, Otto Sander, Bert Stephan, Alan Vega, Ulrich Wildgruber, Martin Wuttke
Production: norton.commander.productions/MauserFilm Produktion (1997/2025)
Music, Sound Design: Bo Wynter, Bernd Jestram
Editing: Stefan Urlass
Restoration: Adhoc Film Renè Biermann, dc1 GmbH, media & object digitisation
Harriet Maria & Peter Meining realised more than 50 stagings, experimental films, video installations, and audio plays under the name norton.commander.productions. In 2018, they set up MauserFilmproduktion and have been concentrating on their film work since then – especially in the SciFi genre. Lars Rudolph is an actor, musician, and composer. He has participated in more than 60 film productions up to now. Among them are Tom Tykwer’s “Lola rennt”, Bela Tarr’s “Die Werckmeisterschen Harmonien”, Oskar Roehler’s “Die Unberührbare” and Fatih Akin’s “Soul Kitchen”. Additionally, Lars Rudolph held engagements at several theatres, among them at Schauspielhaus Zürich, at Munich Kammerspiele, and Berliner Volksbühne. He was an ensemble member at Schauspielhaus Hamburg from 2020 until 2025.
credits
In collaboration with HELLERAU – European Centre for the Arts. Supported by the German Federal Cultural Foundation as part of the “Transformation Forever. Aufbruch, Freiheit und Widerstand in Mittel- und Osteuropa seit 1990” (“Transformation Forever. Departure, Freedom, and Resistance in Central and Eastern Europe since 1990”) festival.
Supported by the NATIONAL PERFORMANCE NETWORK: Theater Touring Program, funded by the Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and the Media and the state ministries of culture and the arts.
