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“Georg Büchner’s three surviving dramatic texts show the playwright wrestling with divergent styles in a struggle to convey his bleak worldview … Sean Graney reveal[s] much the same process. Both artists want to build on centuries-old theatrical traditions yet shred the niceties of conventional theater to expose life’s raw nerves … Graney exploits his trademark techniques — stark design, inflated acting, self-reflexive presentation — to create an explosive, richly unpleasant affair … Büchner poured every ounce of his cynicism into Prince Leonce, whose absurd battle with boredom fuels LEONCE UND LENA. Leonce can find nothing better to do with his days than spit on a rock 365 times in a row, convinced that human beings ‘fall in love, marry, and multiply out of boredom, and finally they die out of boredom.’ His childish father has betrothed him to the Princess Lena, a plan that will greatly interfere with Leonce’s commitment to idleness … Since Büchner is satirizing the theatrical conventions of his day, she’s earnestly trying to become a fairy-tale princess, spouting poetic rhapsodies about flowers and dragonflies — while wrestling with the realization that ‘there are people who are unhappy, incurably so, simply because they exist. For this play Büchner drew heavily on the conventions of commedia dell’arte, then a nearly 300-year-old tradition of stock rustic characters in cartoonish, often ribald situations. Graney transforms the genre into menacing farce, inflating the characters’ passions to such volatile extremes that they often quake as though ready to explode.” —Justin Hayford, The Chicago Reader
Author(s)
Georg BüchnerGeorg Büchner was born in Germany in 1813. He studied medicine, campaigned for social change, and wrote two plays, DANTON'S DEATH and LEONE AND LENA, before starting work on WOYZECK, which was based on a real criminal case. Büchner died of typhus at aged twenty-three.
Sean GraneySean Graney is the Artistic Director and Founder of The Hypocrites, a Chicago theater company. As a playwright, he has received productions of THE 4TH GRADERS PRESENT AN UNNAMED SUICIDE at 59E59 in New York, The Hypocrites and the side project in Chicago; AUTOPHAGY at the Drama League Director's Fest in 2007 in New York; PORNO at the side project in Chicago; as well as many adaptations and short plays. As a director, Mr. Graney directed over 30 productions since 1997. He was a participant in the NEA/TCG Career Development Program for Directors from 2004/6. He has won two Joseph Jefferson Citations for Outstanding Direction.
Special Notes
If original stage producers credits appear in bold below, all licensees are required to include them in the following form on the title page in all programs distributed in connection with performances of the Play and in all advertising in which the full cast appears in size of type not less than ten percent (10%) of the size of the title of the Play:
LEONCE UND LENA was adapted from a literal German translation by Evan Garfinkel
LEONCE UND LENA premiered in 2005 with the Hypocrites, Chicago, IL
In addition, the following must appear within all programs distributed in connection with performances of the Play:
by special arrangement with Broadway Play Publishing Inc, NYC
www.broadwayplaypub.com
Upcoming and Recent Productions
Nonprofessional
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