Then
Woyzeck as lab subject
Now
Debates over medical ethics, gig-work precarity and people treated as data points.
- Alban Berg's opera Wozzeck (1925)
- Werner Herzog's film Woyzeck (1979)
- Tom Waits & Robert Wilson's musical Woyzeck (2000)
Layer IV
Back to Today
The trouble with reality never went away. It just changed screens.
Then
A real murder case on stage
Now
Our appetite for true crime: podcasts and docuseries that ask, like Büchner, who is really to blame.
- True-crime podcasts
- Prestige crime docuseries
Then
Nora's door slam
Now
Conversations about marriage, emotional labor and leaving — still argued online every time the play is revived.
- Lucas Hnath's A Doll's House, Part 2 (2017)
- Jamie Lloyd's Broadway revival with Jessica Chastain (2023)
Then
Dr. Stockmann vs. the town
Now
Whistleblowers, contaminated water crises and 'alternative facts' — the cost of telling the truth.
- Whistleblower dramas
- Environmental justice films
Then
The fourth wall & ordinary speech
Now
The DNA of TV realism: kitchen-sink drama, soap opera and the 'slice of life' series.
- Family dramas on streaming
- Method and naturalistic acting
Then
Hedda's trapped brilliance
Now
The 'difficult woman' antiheroine of modern TV and film.
- Antiheroine TV dramas
- Countless Hedda revivals and adaptations
Discussion
Who is today's Woyzeck — and whose story still isn't allowed on stage?