UMS'nJIP - Woyzeck

*Woyzeck*, based on Georg Büchner’s dramatic fragment of the same name, is a musical theater production featuring UMS’nJIP (Ulrike Mayer-Spohn and Javier Hagen), directed by Wolfgang Beuschel. The text for UMS’nJIP’s *Woyzeck* is based on Büchner’s original, which has been abridged and dramaturgically condensed. Woyzeck, a simple soldier, serves as a barber to a captain. His wages are not enough to support his lover Marie and their child, so he also sells himself as a medical test subject. The consequences of the experiments weaken him—already scarred by life—to such an extent that he loses himself more and more in a world of delusions. And so, despite his sincere efforts to be a good person, Woyzeck ultimately staggers toward the abyss in a society that offers him no foothold in life. Woyzeck becomes a victim of stifling, patriarchal patterns.

With over 300 commissioned works and 1,600 concerts in 40 countries, as well as 35 international awards, UMS’nJIP (Ulrike Mayer-Spohn and Javier Hagen) ranks among the most renowned and active ensembles for contemporary new music. Music theater—especially mobile formats—has always been a defining feature of their style. They have produced more than 20 staged works, presenting them both at leading Swiss venues (Gessnerallee, Rütli-Blick, and Walcheturm in Zurich; Gare du Nord and Theater Roxy in Basel; PROGR in Bern; Oggi Musica in Lugano; Archipel in Geneva; Forum Wallis) as well as at renowned festivals and venues in Mexico, Argentina, the U.S., Russia, China, Japan, Australia, Turkey, Greece, Egypt, Spain, Italy, France, and the Baltic states.