In Woyzeck: In the TBS, professional actors, forensic psychiatric patients, and staff members together explore the world-famous, unfinished play by Georg Büchner. A soldier who slowly loses his grip on reality. An affair. A knife. A murder. Woyzeck is one of the first texts in world literature to portray a crime committed by someone deemed legally insane, showing that a perpetrator can be not only guilty, but also a victim.
Büchner left behind 27 separate scenes that can be performed in any order. In Woyzeck: In the TBS, directed by Casper Vandeputte, the story is created live and can end differently every evening. On stage, a group of staff members from the Van der Hoeven Kliniek and forensic psychiatric patients perform alongside the cast. Actors Vincent van der Valk and Marieke Giebels move among them — guiding, performing, and interrupting.
What happens inside the mind of someone who is losing their grip on life and becoming increasingly violent — and what does that do to bystanders and loved ones? If a perpetrator also turns out to be a victim, how far removed are we ourselves from violence? And why do we keep watching — what fascinates us?
In Woyzeck: In the TBS, we search for the edge of madness, the step toward violence. Each evening ultimately revolves around one question, relevant to every actor, every forensic psychiatric patient, and every visitor: can you become a different person?