Adaptation
During the second semester of my MA degree I worked on my original adaptation, distilling the play from 24 scenes to 13 key scenes and updating the period language of the play. I wanted to create an adaptation that tells the story as efficiently as possible, in such a way that emphasized Woyzeck over other characters in the piece. I strove to craft the language so that it would not have the stilted quality evident in many direct translations. I wanted an efficient telling, in other words the same story told in fewer scenes, due to the nature of AR technology. Creating work for AR is currently incredibly time and labor intensive and still in the "enthusiast stage" of user adoption as described by Gillian Crampton Smith. Smith explains that in this initial stage of a technology's development it is very cumbersome to implement, but that enthusiasts persevere because they are so excited by the technology's capabilities (xii).
I knew I needed a briefer version of Woyzeck to work with to have a chance of finishing the project in a timely fashion while creating a polished work of high quality. I chose to set the piece in no specific time period, to allow ease of drawing parallels to our time, or any other, without forcing such connections on the audience. The story has important resonance to its original time period that makes it well served by faithful period productions. However, those aspects of the story were not of primary interest to me and on a practical note I knew a period production was beyond my resources. The story of Woyzeck has a timeless quality to it and therefore translates well to a non-period-specific production.
To accomplish my goals, there were many scenes and characters I chose to cut from the original for my adaptation. The fairground scenes have been cut. Thematically these are the man/animal scenes which highlight the role of nature in Woyzeck's fate and the manner in which people get treated as animals in Woyzeck's world. These scenes also necessitate more actors than I could afford to cast. I could have of course given actors double roles, but I felt this was not appropriate to my telling of the story. The feel of the fairground, its freakishness and reversal of roles still exists in my adaptation of the doctor's scene, which is accompanied by a tangible interface that allows the audience member to contribute to Woyzeck's torture by forcing him to perform various humiliations.
I took out most references to Christianity as well as all anti-Semitism. I feel these aspects could be dealt with well in a period production but would alienate modern audiences in a non-period specific setting. I cut the bar scene with the pseudo-sermon and its anti-Semitic punch line as well as the pawn-shop scene, which has a particularly offensive portrayal of a Jewish shop owner. The most valuable line in the shop scene refers to Woyzeck's "economical death." This line has an obvious anti-Semitic meaning, but also a useful double meaning referring modern audiences to the "economical" death chambers of the Holocaust. This reference is maintained by keeping intact the doctor's scene, which also refers us to Nazi concentration camps and the unethical medical experiments performed there.
I cut many supporting characters to tighten the story, including the child. I feel the child exists as a device to create sympathy for Marie and Woyzeck and is not an absolute necessity. On a practical note, I did not have the resources to work with a child actor and was not interested in having the part played by an adult. I have added to the character of the grandmother by expanding on her anti-fairy tale and creating her in the style of a Greek chorus that comments on the action of the play.
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