Bertolt Brecht - Education Scotland

INTRODUCTION
INTRODUCTION
Bertolt Brecht has become such an enormous influence on all aspects of
twentieth-century theatrical practice and theory, it is a wonder a whole course
isn’t devoted solely to him, let alone half a unit. Indeed, his writing – both
creative and theoretical – forms not so much a ‘body of work’ as an industry, the
size of which could put British manufacturing to shame and out-perform many a
small country’s gross national product.
To give some idea of the wealth of Brecht scholarship, the International Brecht
Society (yes, there is one) lists twenty-one pages of articles that have appeared in
its own annual publication, the Brecht Yearbook; it lists twenty-five other sites or
links devoted to Brecht on the World Wide Web.
The British Library website lists more than three hundred books associated with
the word ‘Brecht’. Seven volumes of his collected plays have been published, so
far, in Britain alone; all the major plays are published in different single versions,
sometimes as a Student Edition, sometimes as a Modern Plays Edition, sometimes
in different translations. Additionally, his poems, short stories, journals, theories,
letters and diaries have been published.
Critical works on Brecht are so numerous and conflicting, the writers often so
much at odds with one another, they are sometimes wonderfully diverting
melodramas in themselves; never quite matching the political acerbity of a Brecht
play but thoroughly entertaining nevertheless.
This in turn does not take into account the fact that these works and critical
studies are only the English language department of the Brecht industry. Volume
upon volume of articles, newspaper columns, books and magazines are devoted
to Bertolt Brecht in his native German and other languages across the world,
wherever theatre is practised.
Much of what Brecht wrote has not, as yet, even been translated, though work
goes on ceaselessly to correct this. Much of what has been translated has been
done by so many different people that one play is available as The Good Person of
Setzuan, or Szechwan, Sezuan or Sichuan (the American translation by Eric
Bentley even changes the title to The Good Woman of Setzuan). Brecht was also
good enough to provide two different versions of the play for translators to mull
over, one for Zurich and one for Santa Monica!
The play Man is Man is also Man Equals Man or A Man’s a Man (one learned
publication even titles it Man=man). These endless confusions follow the study
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INTRODUCTION
of Brecht around like a team of FBI agents and I have tried to take this into
account when compiling this bibliography.
For ease, I have tended to focus primarily on the translations of John Willett and/
or Ralph Manheim who publish largely through Methuen in the United Kingdom.
Some Brecht fans will prefer the Eric Bentley translations but these are published
generally in the USA by the Grove Press and consequently are not as readily
available. Other translations do appear in this bibliography, where and when I
have considered them beneficial. As for spellings, where a writer makes reference
to a play, the writer’s spelling has been used (Bentley : Setzuan; Boa : Sezuan;
Hofman : Sichuan; Willett : Szechwan, etc.).
Due to the enormous number of books written on the subject, there has been an
urgent and genuine need for the trimming and paring down of a bibliography
such as this. Unit 2: Twentieth-Century Theatre: Theories of Performance (AH) is
a 40-hour course within which teachers and students will have to look at two
practitioners. It is perfectly conceivable, therefore, that teachers will be looking
at the need for resources to suit a 20-hour teaching and learning pack for half of
the whole unit.
In a bid to solve this problem, I have identified what I consider to be the Top
Ten titles – critical texts from which all the suggested course content is
accessible, save for actual play texts themselves.
What follows this section is a selection of Brecht’s work in translation. Plays,
poems and theoretical writings are included but there has been no attempt to
provide details of all the work in translation. Plays have not been identified in
The Top Ten due to the overwhelming number of critical works.
Plays, along with other of Brecht’s own creative output, form a separate choice
for students studying Unit 2. Unit 3: Special Study gives the student the option of
looking at The Good Woman of Setzuan, though any of Brecht’s plays may be used
for practical exploration in Unit 2. I felt this was all the more reason for keeping
plays in a separate section of the bibliography.
The World Wide Web is also a resource which cannot be ignored today. All the
usual warnings about its unreliability, the cost of calls and connection are, of
course, pertinent. However, for all the rubbish that you will dig up, there are
also little nuggets with much that is relevant and interesting and demanding
placed on various websites all over the world and I have included those that I
think would aid teachers and students alike.
Music played a vital role in Brecht’s work, and the two CDs mentioned at the tail
end of this section are merely an example of those easily available. For further
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information on CDs and any form of Brecht literature and memorabilia, contact:
brecht shop
Obstmarkt 11
86152 Augsburg
Germany
Tel/fax: 08 21 39 1 36
The Dreigroschenheft magazine, also based in Augsburg, is another fund of
information about books and productions but much of the information is given
in German. The website has almost no information in English – see
http://www.dreigroschenheft.de
Finally, the last section of this bibliography is an annotated list, in alphabetical
order, of other texts that offer a variety of perspectives on the work of Bertolt
Brecht and that would benefit from a reading, whether in depth or by dipping
into.
I have, of course, been guided in my selections by the demands of Unit 2:
Twentieth-Century Theatre: Theories of Performance (AH) as outlined in the
Arrangements for Drama. No bibliography of this nature can be exhaustive and
can only emphasise the preferences of the compiler. I hold my hands up to this.
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THE TOP TEN
Most departments, I am sure, will have little money to spare. Should a
department need to focus its spending gradually in the first few years on useful,
important and key texts, the following would be a highly recommended place to
start.
Brecht, Bertolt, Brecht on Theatre: The Development of an Aesthetic, trans.
J. Willett, London: Methuen, 1964
One of the two most important books for any student of Brecht. It pushes
Willett’s highest entry, The Theatre of Bertolt Brecht, into second place because
it is Brecht’s own work.
Willett has been the foremost Brecht scholar in the West over the years since
Brecht burst onto the Western theatrical world in the 1950s. Willett’s
translations and critical work helped to spark the explosion of interest in
Brecht in the English speaking world.
The book contains a first rate collection of Brecht’s writing. It is not
exhaustive, and does not claim to be. The writings of Brecht, as already
mentioned, are an industry in themselves, such was his prolific output: much
of what he wrote has not, as yet, been translated into English, more than half
a century on!
So, although this book consists merely of the English language highlights, it is
an extraordinarily valuable resource. Care should be taken with much of it.
Brecht was a gifted dramatist and director, of that there seems little doubt.
But he was also a poet and theoretician; a lover of Elizabethan and ancient
Greek theatre; of bawdy songs, boxing, cabaret acts and Charlie Chaplin.
Despite his genius, he could be both verbose and mischievous.
Some of the more important essays include:
• ‘The Modern Theatre is the Epic Theatre’;
• ‘On Gestic Music’;
• ‘The Street Scene’;
• ‘Short Description of a New Technique of Acting which Produces an
Alienation Effect’;
• ‘A Short Organum for the Theatre’;
• ‘Stage Design for the Epic Theatre’;
• ‘Study of the First Scene of Shakespeare’s Coriolanus’;
• ‘Appendices to the Short Organum’.
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‘Interview with an Exile’ will also give a clue as to why Brecht had so much
time for Charlie Chaplin and what he interpreted as the distancing effect of
Chaplin’s acting style.
The book contains a generous and helpful collection of illustrations: Caspar
Neher design drawings; action photographs from various productions which
reveal aspects of staging (pre- and post-Epic) – from Baal, through the
Lehrstücke, to Galileo and beyond; extracts from model books, and influences
on Brecht (a painting by Brueghel; a production by Piscator, etc.).
As the title of the book suggests, Brecht’s theory and practice underwent a
significant development between his productions of Baal and The Caucasian
Chalk Circle. Here, that development is traced in his own (translated) words.
Willett, John, The Theatre of Bertolt Brecht: A study from eight aspects,
London: Methuen, rev. 1977
The second of the two most important books for students of Brecht.
Willett’s seminal work contains just about everything you need to know about
Brecht: his life, his influences, his art, his theories, his politics.
There is also an ‘analysis’ (less an analysis and more a plot outline) of forty
plays from Baal to Turandot, necessarily brief, but which contain production
details such as first production dates, and names of collaborators, designers
and musicians.
This is a book to read at length. All other books on Brecht must use this as a
yardstick.
Eddershaw, Margaret, Performing Brecht: forty years of British
performances, London: Routledge, 1996
An absolute gem of a book for drama and theatre students.
If Epic Theatre is as much about attitude and commitment as it is about acting
style, design and production technique, then this book marries the disparate
areas that make up Brecht the man and Brecht the cultural institution.
Eddershaw is careful to see Brecht as a theatre practitioner above all else. Her
opening section deals with the differences and similarities between what both
Stanislavski and Brecht achieved and desired. It is a subject to which she has
returned in this book from an earlier essay, ‘Acting methods: Brecht and
Stanislavski’, found in Bartram and Waine (see page 10).
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It is an important distinction, one that troubles many students (as well as
actors and directors!). In many ways, what these two were after was not so very
different; in others, they were poles apart. Eddershaw picks her way through
this minefield adroitly and lucidly.
From here, the book illustrates the work of Brecht and Brechtian work in
Britain. Marvellous case studies from the very early, and often misjudged,
years (Joan Littlewood’s Theatre Workshop’s Mother Courage and The Royal
Court’s The Good Woman of Setzuan, both from 1956) are followed by a
mixture of more and less successful ones.
The Scots actor Bill Paterson supplies a great deal of mileage for an
investigation of acting in work by Brecht. This can be found in Eddershaw’s
discussion of the National Theatre’s 1982 production of Schweyk in the Second
World War (the fourth section of the book, ‘Performing ‘Classical’ Brecht:
Making the Strange Familiar’).
Three lengthy sections follow, looking at the Santa Monica version of The
Good Person of Sichuan as directed by Deborah Warner at the National in 1989
(for this translation by M Hofmann, see page 16); Philip Prowse’s 1990 Mother
Courage at The Citizens, and a Di Trevis production of The Resistible Rise of
Arturo Ui, at the National again, in 1991.
Eddershaw is careful to use these three productions to balance the ‘hit-andmiss’
affair of performing Brecht today. She sees Warner’s Sichuan as
sentimental and non-political; Prowse’s Courage as designer-led (no surprises
there), and the Trevis Ui as a success.
Throughout, the book concentrates on the realisation of Brechtian theory as
practice, and as such, it gives vital clues and information to actors, designers
and directors of Brecht.
Willett, John, Brecht in Context: Comparative Approaches, London:
Methuen, 1984
No apologies for more Willett. This is another important book.
The chapter on the influence of Kipling (pp44–58) is very interesting. The
mere fact that there is a connection between the two, given their political
persuasions, is worth noting. Willett draws on Brecht’s humanism – not done
often enough – and his approach to using language, being an ‘un-literary’
writer, and on his preference for actions rather than emotions.
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THE TOP TEN
Brecht, Willett argues, is primarily an anti-Expressionist (pp73–86). These
pages look at Brecht’s links with cabaret and the sexual urgings found in
Wedekind, Expressionism’s influence on Brecht and Brecht’s distance from
this movement.
The discussion of Brecht and Piscator (pp87–106) is valuable for its
delineation of their agreements and disagreements. It also gives further
evidence – if it be needed – of the collaborative nature of this radical form of
theatre, with writers working together on plays, revisions, translations and
adaptations. The documentary style of presentation, epic, montage, use of
film, non-Western techniques and the influence of Brecht’s Moscow trip on
acting techniques are all to be found in this section of the book.
Light is thrown on Brecht’s obsession with crime novels and cinema (pp107–
128) and its link with Arturo Ui; and on Brecht’s attitude to filming and his
work on Pabst’s film of The Threepenny Opera (1931) and the semidocumentary
Kuhle Wampe (1932).
Chapter 8 deals with the visual arts: montage; collaborations with George
Grosz and Piscator (on The Good Soldier Svejk), and Caspar Neher.
Music is examined in Chapter 9 – its gestation in his own poetry and on to his
love of ballads and cabaret; through to his collaborations with Weill, Eisler
and Dessau (among others), and his interest in new musical movements.
‘Two political excursions: b: Brecht, Alienation and Karl Marx’ (pp218–221)
should be positively the last word on the translation of the troublesome
Brechtian term Verfremdung. It should provide everybody with the strongest
reasons never to use the term ‘alienation’ again when discussing the work of
Brecht. My own term of choice is ‘distancing’, though others will prefer one
of the variety on offer, such as ‘estrangement’or ‘de-familiarisation’.
Finally, and crucially, the closing chapter’s ‘after-notes’ are Willett’s notes on
some of the productions he has seen over the years: The Threepenny Opera
(Prague 1945); Mother Courage and Her Children (Munich 1949); The
Caucasian Chalk Circle (Paris 1955); The Life of Galileo (East Berlin 1957) and
The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui (Paris 1960). These first-hand appreciations
contain marvellous insights into their direction and the use of space and
theatre arts. Not to be missed.
Needle, Jan, and Thomson, Peter, Brecht, Oxford: Basil Blackwell, 1981
This is another extremely good book, scholarly but very accessible for
Advanced Higher students.
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Needle and Thomson are clearly Brecht fans but they never fall into the trap of
lauding him indiscriminately. They are careful to paint what they feel is an
honest assessment of his practice and theory: the undeniably great work (The
Threepenny Opera is identified as his biggest hit, though his ‘masterpieces’
remain the major plays written in exile); the mainly good work, and the
simply weak work (Drums in the Night is described as ‘feeble’).
The book is rightly keen to dispel any lingering stereotypes about German
humour, or at least Brecht’s sense of humour and his desire for fun (Spass).
The section on Man Equals Man stresses the broad comedy of the play but is
careful to draw the distinction between the satire of artists like Grosz and
what these authors read as Brecht’s irony.
The section on politics (Chapter 3) has a clarity often missing in many works
and will be very useful for students who often struggle with this aspect of
Brecht. It is also wonderfully critical, and sometimes damning, of other books
about Brecht by writers who find his politics unpalatable. (And it contains the
funniest bibliographical annotation regarding Walter Benjamin’s book on
Brecht.)
This section is also notable for its examination of the Lehrstücke – the Baden-
Baden play, He Who Said Yes and He Who Said No, The Measures Taken and
The Exception and the Rule – and The Mother. The stress throughout Needle
and Thomson’s argument is that Brecht may have said he was a Marxist but he
was not the sort of Marxist other Marxists recognised very clearly. This picture
of the ambiguous and contradictory dramatic genius is a very compelling one.
More of the overtly didactic plays are dealt with in the following chapter.
Gestus, Epic, the actor–audience relationship, acting style and exercises, debts
to Piscator, differences with Stanislavski and opposition to naturalism, and
Verfremdungseffekte are all discussed in their practical, theatrical context in
the chapter on Brecht’s theory. These are, once again, pertinent and
worthwhile.
A tremendous chapter then follows devoted to Brecht’s original staging of
Mother Courage in Berlin in 1949, ten years after it was written in his
Scandinavian exile as a warning to his new countrymen not to become
embroiled with the Nazis. It illustrates graphically the direction of the
production. (A whole book is devoted to this subject – see Thomson, Mother
Courage and Her Children on p36.)
The later plays – most notably The Caucasian Chalk Circle and The Life of
Galileo – are dealt with towards the end of the book, and though placed in a
section as exemplification of Brecht’s dramaturgy rather than his directorial
innovations, are nonetheless pithy and substantial.
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THE TOP TEN
Bartram, Graham, and Waine, Anthony (eds.), Brecht in Perspective, London:
Longman, 1982
A collection of essays aimed at an undergraduate audience though this should
not put off an Advanced Higher student with a developing understanding of,
and interest in, Brecht. It is undoubtedly a first-rate buy.
The second section of the book is certainly the most productive. It handles
the theatrical practice from its social and artistic complexities through to
looking at the comparable and diverging methods used by the century’s two
foremost theatrical theorists and practitioners – Brecht and Stanislavski. This
latter chapter is by Margaret Eddershaw (see page 6) and should be a key text
for directing options at Advanced Higher.
A succinct chapter on Brecht’s great inspiration, Piscator, follows, examining
their theatrical, political and personal relationship. This leads to a super
essay, ‘Brecht and Cabaret’, which is detailed, informative and revealing as
regards Brecht’s debt to this form of popular entertainment: a debt which runs
through the development of Gestus, Verfremdung, use of music, staging,
narrative structure and anti-naturalist presentational styles.
As might be expected, the first section of the book treats the social, political,
historical and artistic background from which Brecht sprang. There is a very
good chapter on Epic theatre and a vital essay on comedy which examines
Brecht’s insistence on Spass (fun) in the theatre.
The book ends with a retrospective on Brecht’s legacy, both on Germanspeaking
theatre and English theatre (unfortunately it is specifically English
theatre and not British theatre). Like all the texts in this Top Ten which look
at Brecht’s influence on theatre today, this is particularly important when
students grapple with the demands of Outcome 2: ‘Explore the influence of
two leading 20th-century theatre practitioners on current theatre practice’.
Sacks, Glendyr, and Thomson, Peter (eds.), The Cambridge Companion to
Brecht, Cambridge: CUP, 1994
This is an extremely good companion, in the Top Ten due to its breadth and
contemporaneity. Part of its strength is the mixture of contributions, ranging
from both the academic sector’s view and the theatre practitioner’s angle.
Again, all elements of Brecht’s life and work are covered, giving insights into
the plays, the practice and the politics.
One of the most interesting aspects of this book is how individual plays are
picked up and examined in some detail. This makes it a useful tool for
students taking as broad a sweep as possible through Brecht’s practice.
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As one might expect, the book opens with a trawl through the historical,
political, social, theatrical, artistic background out of which emerged Brecht
the dramatist, poet, novelist, director and polemicist.
A series of plays then come under the microscope, followed by essays on
directing, theatrical theory, collaboration and acting. The book closes with,
again, a good look (for the purposes of Outcome 2) at Brecht’s legacy to
theatre and how modern practitioners have been influenced by him.
Peter Brooker’s chapter ‘Key words in Brecht’s theory and practice of theatre’
is worth highlighting. Its glossary of key words is crystal clear and provides a
good starting point for students.
Another vital text for the course focusing on both practical and theoretical
issues.
Ewen, Frederick, Bertolt Brecht: His Life, His Art, His Times, New York:
Citadel Press, Carol Publishing, reissued 1992
This is a mighty tome, a biography that is sympathetic to Brecht the man, the
theatre practitioner and the political thinker. There should be at least one
biography in the Top Ten, and this one outshines Klaus Völker’s (see page 36)
due to its depth, broad scope and understanding of how central the theatre
was to Brecht.
Many of this book’s critics complain that it is a little cold, a little remote; that
it concentrates on the work rather than the life of the man. The same critics
tend also to complain when a study ignores the work at the expense of the
man.
What this biography does, and at some length, is make the very crucial
connection between the two. The work was the means by which Brecht
identified himself and sought to change the world.
This is a thorough, painstaking and revealing biography. It covers everything:
from his early days as a pseudo-dandified cabaret act, through the political
radicalism of the Lehrstücke, to Epic and beyond; from the ravaged Europe of
the post-1914–18 war, to the rise of Hitler’s Nazism in Europe, out to
Hollywood and finally his triumphant return to East Berlin.
Chapter VIII, ‘In Quest of Identity: The Road to the Epic Theatre’, paints a
vivid picture of the cultural, political and artistic vibrancy and turbulence
which marked the dying embers of Expressionism and the beginning of the
‘new objectivity’ (Neue Sachlichkeit).
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Ewen shows Piscator’s radical theatrical innovations in fantastic detail, and
demonstrates how these were vital introductions to Brecht of new, political
and entertaining techniques. This chapter illustrates how objectivity meshed
with political cabaret; how agit-prop raged with delight all over Germany;
what cinema and Russian theatre offered; just how widespread and important
the concept of collaboration was to these artists.
Here too, Ewen clearly and entertainingly describes Brecht’s first steps at
coming to terms with his marriage of theatre’s possibilities to his new and
growing politicisation. He goes on to discuss Brecht’s revelation that ‘William’
(Shakespeare) was also, to Brecht’s way of thinking, an ‘epic’ theatre
practitioner.
Other chapters are equally readable, packed with insights and pertinent to
students of Drama and Theatre. Chapter XI, ‘The Recovery of Identity: The
Epic Theatre’, contains lucid explanations and exemplifications of the acting
technique associated with the Grundgestus and Gestus; the concept of
Verfremdung; the actor audience relationship Brecht sought, etc., etc. The
following chapter deals with the Lehrstücke. One can dip into any chapter and
find essential information. The whole book is likewise valuable. This is a firstrate
biography precisely because it makes a big issue out of both Brecht’s
theory and his practice.
McDonald, Jan, and Schumacher, Claude (eds.), The Citizens’ Theatre
Season, Glasgow 1990, Glasgow: Theatre Studies Publications, The
University, 1991
It is important to try to maintain a Scottish angle on the course and this book
provides, at least, a token towards this end.
As its title suggests, it is a review of the work of one of Scotland’s most famous
producing theatres over the course of the year when Glasgow had ownership
of the title European City of Culture.
It is, naturally, a very good resource in its own right as a survey of the work of
one contemporary Scottish theatre company. Work by Pirandello, Ibanez,
Dumas, Shaw, Goldoni, Rowe and, of course, Brecht is dealt with in a
generally formulaic way.
The formula gives the reader a synopsis, the play’s background, details of its
performance, an interview with either a director, writer or actress (in the case
of Brecht’s Mother Courage and Her Children, the interview is with Glenda
Jackson who played the lead role), and a series of newspaper reviews of the
production. It is worth noting from Jackson’s interviews that, although
politically aligned with Brecht, she is influenced as an actress by both Brecht
and Stanislavski in her creation of the role of Mother Courage.
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Jackson’s usual honesty is a delight and offers the reader a sharply focused
analysis of how she approached the role of one of Brecht’s most famous
female characters.
Braun, Edward, The Director and the Stage: From Naturalism to Grotowski,
London: Methuen, 1982
Like the previous entry, this is not specifically a text about Brecht alone but
one that should prove invaluable to students of the Advanced Higher Drama
course.
Braun offers a broad, outstanding overview of the rise to prominence of the
director since the late nineteenth century.
As the nearest thing you will find to a course reader, it will introduce students
to the work of Meiningen, Antoine, the Symbolists, Jarry, Stanislavski, Gordon
Craig, Reinhardt, Meyerhold, Piscator, Brecht, Artaud and Grotowski.
If you have not already decided which two twentieth-century theatre
practitioners to study, this is the best introduction you can hope for. It does
not deal specifically with Copeau, Brook or Boal, though all three of these
have a great deal of mileage in The Director and the Stage – Copeau through
Antoine; Brook through both Artaud and Grotowski, and Boal through Brecht.
An indispensable introduction to Brecht and others.
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WORKS BY BERTOLT BRECHT
Methuen publish most of the work. The plays appear in several volumes as
Brecht: Collected Plays, with more than twenty different translators, all edited by
John Willett.
• Vol. 1 (Baal, Drums in the Night, In the Jungle of the Cities, The Life of Edward
II of England, A Respectable Wedding, The Beggar or the Dead Dog, Driving Out
a Devil, Lux in Tenebris, The Catch), 1994.
• Vol. 2 (Man Equals Man, The Elephant Calf, The Threepenny Opera, The Rise
and Fall of the City of Mahagonny, The Seven Deadly Sins of the Bourgeoisie),
1994.
• Vol. 3 (Saint Joan of the Stockyards, The Mother, Lindbergh’s Flight, The Baden-
Baden Lesson on Consent, He Said Yes/He Said No, The Decision, The Exception
and the Rule, The Horatians and The Curiatians), 1997.
• Vol. 4 (Round Heads and Pointed Heads, Dansen, How Much is your Iron?
Trial of Lucullus, Señora Carrar’s Rifles, Fear and Misery of the Third Reich),
1998.
• Vol. 5 (The Life of Galileo, Mother Courage and Her Children), 1995.
• Vol. 6 (The Good Person of Szechwan, The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui, Mr
Puntila and His Man Matti),1994.
• Vol. 7 (The Visions of Simone Machard, Schweyk in the Second World War, The
Caucasian Chalk Circle, The Duchess of Malfi), 1994.
Volume 8 is not yet in print and Methuen have not yet scheduled its publication.
When published, it is likely to contain the following plays: The Days of the
Commune; Turandot, Report from Herrnburg; Downfall of the Egoist Johann
Fatzer; The Life of Confucius; The Breadshop; The Salzburg Dance of Death.
There is also a series of single plays issued as ‘Modern Plays Editions’ and
another series issued as ‘Methuen Student Editions’. These vary in content.
For instance, the Modern Plays edition of Mother Courage and Her Children
(1980) is the same translation as the Student Edition (1983) but it has extremely
useful ‘Notes and Variants’, including the text from the Mother Courage Model
book, which the Student Edition does not carry. The Student Edition, however,
has invaluable notes and commentary for students on meaning, characters, plot,
etc., which do not appear in the Modern Plays edition.
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WORKS BY BERTOLT BRECHT
The other Methuen Student Editions are:
The Caucasian Chalk Circle, Methuen Student Edition, trans. J & T Stern
with W H Auden, with commentary and notes by Hugh Rorrison, London:
Methuen, 1984
This has an excellent series of photographs from Brecht’s Berliner Ensemble
production, designed by Karl von Appen. The introductory notes and
commentary are superb.
The Life of Galileo, Methuen Student Edition, trans. J Willett, with notes and
commentary by Hugh Rorrison, London: Methuen, 1986
Another excellent edition.
The many Methuen Modern Plays editions are all edited by John Willett and
Ralph Manheim:
The Threepenny Opera, trans. R Manheim and J Willett, 1979
Excellent notes and texts, including one by Kurt Weill, a public letter
responding to requests for his theoretical views.
The Good Person of Szechwan, trans. J Willett, 1985
Another good edition, which also contains the variant Santa Monica version
and notes on the Zurich production.
The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui, trans. R Manheim, 1981
Fear and Misery of the Third Reich, trans. J Willett, 1983
The Caucasian Chalk Circle, trans. J & T Stern with W H Auden, 1963
For alternatives, you might want to look at the following:
The Good Person of Sichuan, trans. M Hofmann, London: Methuen, 1989
Hofmann’s translation for the National Theatre in 1989 is based on the Santa
Monica version of the play (the original version is from a Zurich production).
It is shorter than the original, substitutes opium for tobacco and the
translator’s Preface makes some pithy observations on Brecht’s use of
language.
Mother Courage and Her Children, adapted David Hare, London: Methuen,
1995
David Hare’s adaptation was used for Diana Rigg’s performance at the National
Theatre in 1995.
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The current Arrangements for Drama state that the required reading for Unit 3:
Special Study is the translation by Eric Bentley. The latest edition of this is:
The Good Woman of Setzuan, trans. E Bentley, Minneapolis: University of
Minnesota Press, 1999
Apart from the plays, Brecht wrote a great deal of other work. The following can
also be obtained from Methuen.
• Poems 1913–1956, J Willett and R Manheim eds., with the co-operation of E
Fried, 1979
• Poems and Songs from the Plays, J Willett trans. and ed., 1990
• Bad Time for Poetry, J Willett ed., 1995
• Collected Short Stories, J Willett and R Manheim eds., Y Kapp, H Rorrison, A
Tatlow trans., 1999
• Brecht on Film and Radio, Marc Silberman trans. and ed., 2000
• Brecht Journals 1934–1955, H Rorrison trans., J Willett ed., 1993
Libris, London publish War Primer (1997), another volume of poetry. It is edited
by John Willett.
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THE WORLD WIDE WEB
One of the dangers of the World Wide Web is that anybody can say whatever they
please about anything at all. It is an unregulated mass of opinion, some
wonderfully academic and scholarly, some woefully shoddy and infantile.
Websites have a habit of changing addresses, changing names, changing content,
or disappearing completely. This is the nature of the Internet; this bibliography
offers some sites as examples of what existed at the time of going to print.
United States, Canadian and Australian universities all love sharing information or
blowing their own trumpets, depending on your point of view. British academia
maintains an eerie silence, as if to broadcast their ideas is somehow to devalue
them.
Much of what exists is not linked to any academic institution. This need not
necessarily prove a danger, though usually is. Dive in and take a swim around.
There is a great deal of waste product but there is also a great deal to admire and
enjoy.
http://polyglot.1ss.wisc.edu/german/brecht/main.html
Where better to start a research exercise on the Web than here, the Homepage of
the International Brecht Society.
It is a non-profit, educational organisation founded in 1970 and aims to promote
the work, practice and theory of Brecht. The IBS is a service for scholars, critics,
students and anybody interested in theatre around the world to share ideas and
opinions. It is maintained by the University of Wisconsin-Madison in the USA.
There is a huge amount accessible on the site without having to join the Society,
though one can get even more by joining for a small annual subscription (in
1999 for students this was $20 or DM 30, in the region of £10–£12).
The IBS publishes two journals (free to members), both devoted to the work of
Brecht. Communications is published every six months, while the Brecht
Yearbook is, of course, published annually. The quality of the articles found in
these publications is first class. The Brecht Yearbook 25 (for the year 2000) is to
be devoted to Helene Weigel, this year being the centenary celebration of her
birth.
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The Brecht Yearbooks are available without subscribing to the society. As an
example, the Brecht Yearbook 24 is edited by Marc Silberman, and was published
in April 1999. It can be purchased through:
University of Wisconsin Press
c/o European University Press Group Ltd
3 Henrietta Street
Covent Garden
London WC2E 8LU
Tel: 0171 240 0856
The IBS website also contains information on productions, conferences, books
due out, reviews of books, news, exhibitions, recordings, a chronology of
Brecht’s life, a history of the Berliner Ensemble and four pages of links to other
websites (e.g. the Kurt Weill Foundation, the Lion Feuchtwanger Memorial
Library, etc.). The Brecht Centenary in 1998 saw an explosion of sites dedicated
to him.
Far and away the best Brecht website around.
http://www.kwf.org/
The Kurt Weill Foundation website. Dedicated to one of Brecht’s most famous
collaborators, this site is a must-see. It is geared up for Weill’s centenary in 2000.
www.usc.edu/isd/locations/ssh/special/fml/Brecht/
An exhibition website titled ‘Bertolt Brecht turns 100’ by the Feuchtwanger
Librarian at the University of Southern California.
As an American exhibition, it obviously celebrates Brecht’s time in the USA before
any other period in his life. Lion Feuchtwanger was another playwright with
whom Brecht collaborated (the 1942 production of The Visions of Simone
Machard). Feuchtwanger and Brecht were two of the many European artists who
sat out the 1939–45 war in America. A fine online exhibition.
www.fas.harvard.edu/~art/jungle2.html
A very good interview with the director Robert Woodruff on his 1998 production
of In the Jungle of the Cities.
www.versuche.org
The Homepage of the Versuche Ensemble, a little known theatre company in the
USA.
Of interest here is ‘The Brecht Centennial: The New York International Fringe
Festival 1998’, in which seven of Brecht’s plays were produced. The Versuche
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Ensemble produced both Drums in the Night and Caucasian Chalk Circle for the
festival, and their site contains a fascinating director’s logbook of notes on the
company’s rehearsals. The company also provides newspaper reviews and
photographs for design ideas.
http://dept.english.upenn.edu/~afilreis/50s/brecht-review.html
A page from a University of Pennsylvania professor’s website.
This holds a great riposte from the Green Left Weekly (#77, March 1995) to John
Fuegi’s attempted butchery of Brecht’s reputation (see the reference to John
Fuegi’s book on page 29).
http://mobydicks.com/lecture/Brechthall/messages/41.html
This is a discussion list where people interested in Brecht can post questions or
answers, and share ideas. Many students post questions about issues that are
troubling them for essays/assignments and can receive help or advice from all
over the world.
http://www.geocities.com/Paris/2427/index.html
The site of the Bertolt Brecht Forum.
THE WORLD WIDE WEB
On this site you will find news, a celebration of Helene Weigel’s Centenary, the
World Weill Day, biographies and chronologies of Neher, Eisler, Dessau and
others – rather good ones, too.
This site also contains the FBI files on Bertolt Brecht – all 369 pages, including
passages censored with thick black lines! Absolutely fascinating but perhaps only
for die-hard aficionados.
(Caution: there is another site – http://www.brechtforum.org/ – titled ‘The
Brecht Forum’ which is merely a part of the New York Marxist School’s website.
This is a school that advocates social change through the arts and really has
nothing more to do with Brecht other than using his name for an arena of
discussion. Do not confuse this with the above.)
http://research.haifa.ac.il/~theatre/brecht.html
The University of Haifa in Israel has some production stills from its production of
Fear and Misery of the Third Reich and some excellent links to other sites. These
include sites with biographies, facts, archives, and more on specific texts or
productions such as The Threepenny Opera, Galileo, and The Rise and Fall of the
City of Mahagonny (which includes a great sketch by Neher for Act 2 scene 2).
http://www..mcm.edu/academic/galileo/galileo.html
McMurry University’s site that contains brief director’s notes on a University
production of The Life of Galileo.
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http://www.banffcentre.ab.ca/Theatre/
The Homepage of the Banff Centre for the Arts in Canada. Go to ‘search’ and
type ‘brecht’, or ‘weill’, etc., and there are extracts from critical studies and
histories. For example, the site has taken an extract from Douglas Jannan’s Kurt
Weill: An Illustrated Biography, a great still from Threepenny Opera in 1928 and a
contemporary review from The Times (naming Brecht as ‘Kurt’, curiously).
http://www.goethe.de/eindex.htm
The Homepage of the Goethe-Institut. Goethe-Instituts exist to promote and to
foster mutual understanding through the awareness and appreciation of German
culture, thought and achievement.
Goethe-Instituts all over the world created websites to celebrate Brecht’s
centenary in 1998. Ninety-six Goethe-Instituts currently have websites. Few of the
Brecht centenary exhibitions still exist; the sites change their pages to move on
to more pressing business – look out for new exhibitions at the sites (Kurt Weill
and Helene Weigel both celebrate their centenaries in 2000).
The Goethe-Institut of Hong Kong (at http://www.goethe.de/os/hon/enbb100/
enbbex2.htm) seems to have kept its online Brecht centenary exhibition and
texts, certainly up to early 2000. (The São Paolo Goethe-Institut has done the
same, though in Portuguese.)
The Goethe-Institut of London (http://www.goethe.de/gr/lon/enindex.htm)
currently has an exhibition by Exeter College Foundation Arts students who have
responded in fine arts to plays by Brecht. It is advisable to visit from time to time
to see what is new. You can also post enquiries.
Glasgow has its own Goethe-Institut at: http://www.goethe.de/gr/gla
http://www.pads.ahds.ac.uk/pads.html
The Performing Arts Data Service (PADS) at Glasgow University is a vast,
staggering directory of theatre resources with links to just about everywhere of
interest.
The PADS Theatre Directory can take you to http://www.siue.edu/PROJECT2000
in which you can see scenic, costume and lighting designs from productions
across the world.
There are photographs from an Argentinian The Life of Galileo from 1995–6,
Happy End from the University of Michigan, Mother Courage from a 1985
production at the University of Denver and The Threepenny Opera in two forms:
one from the University of Cincinnati and one from Brandeis University (these
photographs can even be blown up for better resolution).
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Many recordings exist of Weill/Brecht songs, mostly in Germany or the USA. A
good place to find what recent work has been released is the International Brecht
Society website. However, more than enough of a flavour of the work can be
obtained from the following CDs.
Die Dreigroschenoper: Berlin 1930 (Teldec Classics International, Warners
Communication Company, 1990)
This is a single CD that contains original work from the Kurt Weill/Bertolt
Brecht collaboration.
Highlights from The Threepenny Opera (Die Dreigroschenoper) running to
thirteen tracks open the CD, and there are also two songs from The Rise and
Fall of the City of Mahagonny among other work by other artists from this
collection of Berlin recordings. An outstanding resource and insight into the
times.
Lost in the Stars: The Music of Kurt Weill (A&M Records, 1985)
A collection celebrating Weill’s work recorded by more contemporary artists,
including Lou Reed, Marianne Faithfull and Tom Waits.
One of the Weill/Brecht recordings included on this CD is a surprisingly good
version of ‘The Ballad of Mac the Knife’ from The Threepenny Opera by, of all
people, Sting.
Brecht songs – audiotape A319/16Z, Milton Keynes: Open University
Educational Enterprises, 1992
From the Level 3 course, A319 Literature in the Modern World, containing a
variety of songs and discussions of songs and their composition by Brecht and
Weill.
Brecht on Stage – videotape A319/16V, Milton Keynes: Open University
Educational Enterprises, 1992
A twenty-four minute video on which Professor Hans Mayer discusses how
Mother Courage was staged. It also has footage and interviews, including one
with Helene Weigel. The Open University changes its courses fairly regularly,
so this video may not be shown too many more times; catch it if you can. Far
too expensive to buy at £145.
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CRITICAL STUDIES
Bate, J, and Jackson, R (eds.), Shakespeare: An Illustrated Stage History,
Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1996
In Inga-Stina Ewbanks’s ‘European Cross-Currents’ there is a short section on
Brecht’s Shakespearean influences and his struggle to adapt and stage
Coriolanus (and a good photograph from the Berliner Ensemble’s 1964
production Coriolan – Fig 59, p136).
Benjamin, W, Understanding Brecht, London: Verso, 1973
This is very definitely a book for connoisseurs. The opening chapters, ‘What is
Epic Theatre?’ are certainly worth a read but perhaps only after having been
introduced to this concept in other, less florid, books. The closing chapter,
‘Conversations with Brecht’, has to be read to be believed.
Bessell, R (et al), Literature and History: A319 (Block 08), Milton Keynes:
Open University Press, 1991
An extremely good chapter on Brecht and Mother Courage that poses many
questions about the role of the artist in society and the importance of history
and politics in literature and drama.
Boa, E, The Sexual Circus: Wedekind’s theatre of subversion, Oxford: Basil
Blackwell, 1987
Of particular use is Chapter 9 ‘Wedekind and Modern Theatre’ (pp212–227),
in which Boa draws parallels, comparisons and contrasts between the work of
Wedekind and Brecht (Caucasian Chalk Circle, The Good Woman of Sezuan,
Mann ist Mann, Mother Courage). It focuses also on Brecht’s theatrical effects.
Worth a read, though it is designed for more advanced, undergraduate study.
Boal, A, Theatre of the Oppressed, trans. Charles A & Maria-Odilia Leal
McBride, London: Pluto Press, 1979
If ever there was a theatrical practitioner of whom you could say, ‘this could
be the son of Brecht’, then Augusto Boal is your man.
Boal, a Brazilian who worked originally in Latin America and now is based in
both Rio de Janeiro and Paris, has taken theatre as a tool for social change to
areas Brecht could only have dreamed about. He takes Brecht’s political
commitment, theory and practice further and, one could argue, in more
radical directions than one suspects Brecht might have done due to his nonreliance
on literary forms and the theatrical conventions of actor, script and
venue.
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Boal’s work with the working classes is designed to revolutionise society by
giving them the means to overthrow their oppressors. Perhaps his most radical
theatrical move has been in the area of actor-audience relationship: for Boal,
the desire is for everybody to become ‘spect-actors’.
Arguably the most important book published in political theatre theory and
practice since Brecht.
(A new, revised edition of this book is due for publication in June 2000, also
published by Pluto Press.)
Boal, A, Games for Actors and Non-Actors, trans. Jackson, A, London:
Routledge, 1992
A brilliant book with practical games and theoretical justifications for actors,
both professional and amateur.
All the work is geared to follow Boal’s fundamental premise, that theatre is a
functional, social tool, able to liberate the minds and bodies of the people
from oppression.
Boal, A, The Rainbow of Desire: The Boal Method of Theatre and Therapy,
trans. Jackson, A, London: Routledge, 1995
Another book of exercises, explanations and justifications for the way Boal
uses theatre as a social device. Boal’s work is more starkly aimed at the sociobehavioural
end of the artistic process in this book, though whether it was
anything other than this is open to debate.
Bradbury, M, and McFarlane, J, Modernism: 1890–1930, Harmondsworth:
Penguin, 1976
With claims rife for Brecht’s proto-postmodernism, it may be interesting to
discover just where the original claims for his being a modernist came from.
Martin Esslin’s essay, ‘Modernist Drama: Wedekind to Brecht’, will put this
into sharp focus.
Brooker, Peter (ed.), Bertolt Brecht: Dialectics, Poetry, Politics, London and
New York: Croom Helm, 1988
Good on the relationship between politics and theory and practice.
Bull, J, New British Political Dramatists, London: Macmillan, 1984
Another in the very good Macmillan Modern Dramatists series. Brenton, Hare,
Griffiths and Edgar come in for the most acute analysis, but there is much
more than that in this very good survey of the topic, that serves to illustrate
how the British used practitioners like Brecht in their own work.
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Calandra, D, German Dramatists, London: Macmillan, 1983
Contains a survey of modern dramatic writing in German, such as Heiner
Muller, Peter Handke, Franz Xaver Kroetz and Botho Strauss.
It is interesting in its own right, of course, but the more so due to the insights
it gives into how these dramatists have been influenced by Brecht. They have
both taken him further and reacted against his theory and practice – in some
cases (e.g. Kroetz) they have done both of these things.
There are interesting theoretical comparisons (Heiner Muller’s ‘learning play’
Mauser (1970) and The Measure’s Taken, one of Brecht’s most celebrated
Lehrstücke) and practical influences on staging and design (Thomas Brasch’s
Rotter, A German Fairy Tale and Brecht’s own production of Man is Man).
Cooper, S, and Mackey, S, Theatre Studies: An Approach for Advanced Level,
Cheltenham: Stanley Thornes, 1996
A very useful textbook indeed, examining theatrical meaning, the process of
presentation, historical context, textual analysis and contemporary productions.
Part 4 is of special interest to students of Brecht, containing a chronology of
his life, a biography, an excellent survey of the plays through their
performance and Brecht’s theoretical developments (section 4.4.3 ‘Theory and
Practice’, pp292–309), influences and followers, and a reasonably interesting
essay question with a guideline to its answering.
This final page of the Brecht chapter is only ‘reasonable’ because the
‘advanced’ of the title is the A-Level in England. The textbook has been
written for English qualifications, rather than Scottish awards, and is therefore
very specific. Other than this aspect, though, it is still a very good buy.
Counsell, Colin, Signs of Performance: An Introduction to Twentieth-Century
Theatre, London: Routledge, 1996
Chapter 3, ‘Brecht and Epic Theatre’, places Brecht in a modernist role and
gives a good survey of his influences and work. (The book also has chapters
on Stanislavski and Brook.)
Craig, S (ed.), Dreams and Deconstructions: alternative theatre in Britain,
Ambergate: Amber Lane Press, 1980
A thoroughly entertaining and well-illustrated book on the frantic theatrical
activity of 70s Britain. From the influences of Brecht on political theatre to the
fringe, community theatre, theatre-in-education, writers and performance art.
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Delgado, M M, and Heritage, P (eds.), In Contact with the Gods?: Directors
talk Theatre, Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1996
A series of interesting essays from around the world. From Brecht admirers
like Augusto Boal to others less enamoured like Jorge Lavelli. Lavelli is a Parisbased
Argentinian who does not so much dislike the work or ideas of Brecht
as the rigid icon he became; he also disapproves of what he perceives to be
the shackling of artistic freedom endemic in the Brecht heritage. The Italian
director Giorgio Strehler also writes a great deal of sense about Brecht’s
political persuasion.
Demetz, P (ed.), Brecht: A collection of critical essays, Englewood Cliffs,
USA: Prentice-Hall, 1962
A difficult book to purchase today, but so old that it is usually available in
libraries.
A selection of essays on theory, several plays (e.g. Caucasian Chalk Circle, The
Life of Galileo, Mother Courage and Her Children, Saint Joan of the
Stockyards), music and language.
However, the highlight of the book has to be an abridged, hilarious transcript
of ‘The Testimony of Berthold Brecht: Hearings of the House Committee on
Un-American Activities’ given on 30 October 1947, in which Brecht runs rings
round his interrogators from what has become known as the ‘McCarthy Witchhunt’.
DiCenzo, M, The Politics of Alternative Theatre in Britain, 1968–1990: the
case of 7:84 (Scotland), Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1996
There is a considerable section on McGrath’s The Cheviot, The Stag and The
Black, Black Oil, in the chapter ‘From theory to practice: the plays’ (pp151–
219). This also contains a lucid explanation of the debt McGrath owes to
Brecht and Epic theatre.
A super book which might also be considered a good buy for the purposes of
the Higher Unit 3: Contemporary Scottish Theatre.
Docherty, Brian (ed.), European Drama, London: Macmillan, 1994
The chapter by Ronald Spiers, ‘Brecht’s Theory and Practice’ (pp26–41), is
interesting on Brecht’s use of masks and the role of emotion and empathy in
Brecht’s theatre.
Esslin, M, Brecht: A Choice of Evils, London: Heinemann, 1959
Some people swear by this book, others at it. Like many critics who have
problems with Brecht’s politics (Brustein, Spiers, Hayman, etc.), there is a
patronising air about this study, implying that Brecht was a great artist
somewhat by accident; that his art ‘transcended’ his politics. It did nothing of
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the kind, of course, but Esslin and others work tremendously hard trying to
convince us otherwise.
Fuegi, J, The Life and Lies of Bertolt Brecht, London: HarperCollins, 1994
Fuegi has many books about Brecht on the market (The Essential Brecht,
Bertolt Brecht: Chaos, According to Plan), but this is the one that really stirred
up the pot.
It is the most controversial book written on Brecht in years, possibly ever. The
storm of accusations and subsequent counter-accusations is an epic drama in
itself. Even in the Preface, Fuegi likens Brecht to Stalin and Hitler; the alleged
theft of other people’s work to which he put his own name is likened to the
gassing of the Jews during the Holocaust. This is clearly an important book,
though its veracity is wide open to serious questioning (the Brecht Yearbook
that followed its publication ran a 100-page destruction of Fuegi’s ‘evidence’
and assertions).
It runs to 752 pages and is therefore to be browsed lightly only: for Brecht’s
joining of Group 1925 (p148); his early days in Munich and the influence of
Wedekind and cabaret; his work with Piscator and for Fuegi’s opinions on
Brecht’s ‘collaborations’ with writers, directors, designers and musicians.
Caution must be advised when skimming this book. Fuegi has an axe to grind
and he doesn’t mind who knows it.
Fulbrook, M, The Fontana History of Germany: 1918–1990, The Divided
Nation, London: Fontana, 1991
An extremely accessible history textbook. Part One, pp17–125, is the most
relevant section for the purposes of contextualising Brecht’s work.
Giles, S, and Livingstone, R (eds.), Bertolt Brecht: Centenary Essays,
Amsterdam: Rodopi, 1998
New articles on subjects such as collaboration, Marxism, Galileo, Brecht and
East German cultural policy, gestus.
Goorney, H, The Theatre Workshop Story, London: Methuen, 1981
This is some story to tell, as well. Joan Littlewood was a pioneering woman of
the theatre who embraced Brecht in her work from an extremely early stage,
playing Mother Courage herself in 1955, before the Berliner Ensemble made
their extraordinary impact on the British stage the following year.
Goorney, H, and MacColl, E (eds.), Agit-prop to Theatre Workshop: political
playscripts 1930–50, Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1986
An exciting resource, displaying the impact political theatre had in Britain
while Brecht was working with similar impulses in Germany.
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Gray, F, John Arden, London: Macmillan, 1982
As with the other books in the series (Macmillan Modern Dramatists), this is an
easy-to-read guide to the works of a neglected modern playwright (though not
as neglected as his wife and collaborator, Margaretta D’Arcy) and one heavily
influenced by Brecht and reflective of Brecht’s practice and theories.
Gray, Ronald, Brecht the Dramatist, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press,
1976
Lucid and politically informed analyses of playtexts.
Hayman, R (ed.), The German Theatre: a symposium, London: Wolff, 1975
Hayman is not always a fan of Willett’s (he calls his translations ‘approximate
and inaccurate secondhand accounts’, p201!) and his own chapter in this
collection (‘Brecht in the English Theatre’) carries his usual prejudices.
However, he does paint a vivid picture of the theatrical experience of a
Berliner Ensemble production in England. He also deals with the influence of
Brecht on British political theatre (Joan Littlewood, John Arden, Edward
Bond, etc.). Worth a trip to the library or an inter-library loan (the Mitchell
Library, Glasgow, has a copy) to read but not to buy.
Hayman, R, Bertolt Brecht: The Plays, London: Heinemann, 1984
Hayman has translated the works himself which leads to some confusion,
especially with titles, but this is a slim book, with short analyses of a great
many of the plays. They contain some good sense but are shot through with a
distrust of Brecht’s politics.
Hirst, D L, Edward Bond, London: Macmillan, 1985
Yet another in the Modern Dramatists series. Bond is one of the leading
British political dramatists of the second half of the twentieth century and
would be the first to admit an enormous debt to Brecht.
Hodgson, T, Modern Drama from Ibsen to Fugard, London: Batsford, 1992
‘Brecht’s Later Epic Theatre and its Impact’, pp161–171, contains a
surprisingly good section on the staging of The Caucasian Chalk Circle.
Hunt, A, Arden: A Study of his Plays, London: Eyre Methuen, 1974
The mantle of Brecht was certainly worn by John Arden and Margaretta D’Arcy
in the 1960s, using subject matter pertinent to Britain’s political system and
theatrical techniques to question their audiences. The section on The Hero
Rises Up (pp128–143) is very good.
Innes, C, Erwin Piscator’s political theatre: the development of modern
German drama, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1972
An excellent, detailed description of the ‘Red Revue’ (pp43–47), the form of
political cabaret that utilised propaganda, newsreel, popular theatre
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conventions, etc. These are densely illustrative of the techniques picked up by
Brecht and used in his theatrical practice. The whole chapter, ‘Agitprop and
Revue: Society’ (pp41–65) is well worth reading.
Innes is also keen to stress the importance of Piscator’s influence on Brecht
and does so very well (pp189–200). A much neglected source on Brecht’s
practice and a much neglected book, generally.
Innes, C, Holy Theatre: Ritual and the Avant Garde, Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press, 1981
It is sometimes difficult to imagine how much stern, political theatre can share
common interests and practices with wild, avant garde theatre. The reality, of
course, is that ‘political’ does not necessarily equate with ‘stern’, or ‘avant
garde’ with ‘wild’.
Innes is a very astute critic when it comes to placing together the various
strands of perceived opposites. Artaud shared with Brecht initial outrage at the
same social and artistic complacencies of the period. Brecht shares a concern
with the complexities of audience reception which drives some ‘avant garde’
practitioners to what seem extraordinary lengths to shock. It is the same
accusation sometimes levelled at political ‘realists’, as Brecht is occasionally
termed.
By no means an easy book due to the theoretical background being such an
important aspect of work in the avant garde (and the attempt to rationalise it).
This book will benefit students looking at where Brechtian concerns with
society took other practitioners of his period and our own period.
Innes, C, Modern British Drama 1890–1990, Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press, 1992
This is a vivid survey, vast in scope, leaving very little out on the way.
The whole fourth chapter (‘Social themes and realistic formulae’) is worth
reading but the sub-section 4.8, ‘Brechtian influences: Epic stagecraft and
British equivalents’, is clearly the most valuable in looking at Brecht’s legacy.
Innes is never overly respectful, pointing out contradictions in Brechtian
theory and practice, and placing Brecht in a theatrical tradition rather than
positing him as an explosive revolutionary.
The sections that follow this on Arden, Bond, Edgar, Brenton and Hare will
help to chart the development of British political theatre after Brecht.
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Itzin, C, Stages in the Revolution: political theatre in Britain since 1968,
London: Methuen, 1980
A great read, written less in an academic manner and more with a journalistic
clarity. The theatrical activity of the left in the ten years between 1968 and
1978 is all here, bursting with Brechtian influences.
Jameson, F, Brecht and Method, London: Verso, 1998
By one of the foremost writers on postmodernism and culture, Jameson’s
book is a difficult read but one that, while trying to claim parts of Brecht for
postmodernism, also recognises his modernist roots. (Jameson prefers the
translation ‘estrangement’, rather than ‘alienation’, for Verfremdung.) Read the
section on The Caucasian Chalk Circle and the positing of a theoretical
reasoning for his use of pre-modernist peasantry set against the modernism of
capitalists.
Jones, David Richard, Great Directors at Work: Stanislavski, Brecht, Kazan,
Brook, Berkeley and London: University of California Press, 1976
Includes in-depth description and analysis of Mother Courage model book.
Kaye, N, Postmodernism and Performance, London: Macmillan, 1994
There is absolutely no mention whatsoever of Bertolt Brecht in this book. As a
study of postmodernist practice, it is concerned with ‘disruption’ of the
spectacle and narrative, and the challenging of hierarchies. All these concerns,
of course, are very Brechtian but due to the postmodernist perspective, room
for a meta-narrative such as Marxism is forbidden. This book will provide
insight into the practice of theatre that many ex-leftwing political theatre
practitioners have moved into. The content and theory may differ, but some of
the techniques and rationales for their use, are remarkably similar. (This book
may also provide some challenging ideas for Unit 1: Devised Drama.)
Kleber, P, and Visser, C (eds.), Re-interpreting Brecht: his influence on
contemporary drama and film, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press,
1990
Another series of essays, some better than others.
‘Blocking Brecht’ by Maarten Van Dijk is a superb account of the 1983 RSC
production of Mother Courage and the conflict between faithfulness to, and
re-interpretation of, a classic piece of drama.
‘The Origins, Aims and Objectives of the Berliner Ensemble’ by Joachim
Tenschent is eminently readable, short and very much to the point.
Klaus Völker’s ‘Productions of Brecht’s plays on the West German Stage, 1945–
1986’ takes a little time to warm up but when it does (as Volker begins to
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discuss a 1979 production of Saint Joan of the Stockyards in Bochum) it
illustrates graphically the nuts and bolts of some modern productions.
Kleberg, L, Theatre as Action: Soviet Russian Avant-Garde Aesthetics,
London: Macmillan, 1993
Contains an interesting section on the influences between Brecht and
Tretyakov.
McGrath, J, A Good Night Out. Popular Theatre: Audience, Class and Form,
2nd edn, London: Nick Hern Books, 1996
The doyen of British political theatre in the 1970s, McGrath founded the
theatre company 7:84 Scotland (the English 7:84 no longer exists, a victim of
Thatcherite cuts in the 1980s). This is a classic manifesto, delivered originally
as a series of lectures at Cambridge University (the irony is not lost on
McGrath).
Chapter 3, ‘Mediating Contemporary Reality’, in which McGrath pays his
respects to Brecht, is particularly pertinent. McGrath’s contemporary Scottish
play, The Cheviot, The Stag and The Black, Black Oil, could be an homage to
Weimar Germany Red Revue cabaret.
Mitchell, T, Dario Fo: People’s Court Jester, London: Methuen, rev., 1986
A fabulous look at Italy’s comic genius. A theatre practitioner who not only
took political theatre in different directions from Brecht, but took Brecht’s
work in such different directions that Brecht’s daughter would not let him
produce the re-write of Threepenny Opera that was commissioned by the
Berliner Ensemble. See ‘Political Theatre on Shifting Ground 1974–1983’
pp71–94.
Mitter, S, Systems of Rehearsal: Stanislavski, Brecht, Grotowski and Brook,
London: Routledge, 1992
Chapter 2, ‘To Be and Not To Be: Bertolt Brecht and Peter Brook’, is useful
mostly for the influence that Brecht has had on Peter Brook and the reaction
against Brecht that Peter Brook has gone through.
Rather high-brow, but worth a look, especially if combining these two
practitioners on the Unit. Students might pretend to be in ‘Friends’ and go to
Borders or Waterstone’s to read this chapter while drinking coffee. It will
save some money.
Patterson, M, German Theatre Today: post-war theatre in West and East
Germany, London: Pitman, 1976
Chapter 6, ‘Political Theatre in the East’, concentrates on Brecht’s work from
his return to Europe in 1947. It is extremely revealing on the work of the
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Berliner Ensemble after Brecht’s death in 1956, and the subsequent influence
he and the company had on German-speaking theatre.
Patterson, M, The Revolution in German Theatre 1900–1933, London:
Routledge, 1981
This is wide-ranging survey of the German theatre out of which Brecht sprang.
The first part of the book deals with the social, political, philosophical,
scientific and theatrical background of Expressionist theatre.
The second part is much more important, particularly on the ‘Red Revues’ or
political cabarets of Brecht’s youth. Also of great interest is the highly useful
chapter that deals largely with Brecht’s production of Man equals Man,
including sections on its set design, music, acting style and photographs from
the 1931 production showing actors on stilts and the use of the famous halfcurtain.
Patterson, M (ed. and trans.), Georg Büchner: Complete Plays, London:
Methuen, 1987
Büchner’s Woyzeck is credited with having led the way for the Expressionist
and Realist experiments in theatre in the early twentieth century. Brecht’s
Baal owes something to the play.
Reinelt, Janelle, After Brecht: British Epic Theatre, Ann Arbor: University of
Michigan Press, 1994
Worth consulting, the subject matter is indicated in the title.
Rius, Marx for Beginners, London: Writers and Readers Ltd, 1976
Part of the problem for students of Brecht is the political aspect of his work.
Marxism, and even Socialism, are becoming alien concepts today, so cheap,
cheerful, easy-to-read introductions to this might be helpful.
One of a series of cartoon beginners’ books, this one is actually fairly useful as
a beginners’ guide (much more so than the one on Brecht in the same series,
see page 36). Considering just how complex the topic is, it might be worth
obtaining a class copy to pass around each student in turn.
Schutzman, M, and Cohen-Cruz, J, Playing Boal: Theatre, therapy, activism,
London: Routledge, 1994
Though a dense and difficult book, it contains an extremely good essay that
explores Brecht’s concept of the Gestus. Philip Auslander’s ‘Boal, Blau, Brecht:
The Body’ (pp124–133) attempts to show how Boal, influenced by Brecht,
explores oppression through theatrical means. Auslander uses an example
from Caucasian Chalk Circle to help him do this, and also some of Boal’s
other theatrical influences, such as Grotowski and Artaud. A revealing essay.
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Sebald, W G (ed.), A Radical Stage: Theatre in Germany in the 1970s and
1980s, Oxford: Berg, 1988
This book is as interesting for what it does not say about Brecht as it is for
what it does say. It is indicative of the attempts made in Germany to get away
from Brecht’s influence during a time when Brecht’s influence was so strong,
particularly in Britain and throughout the rest of the Western world.
Sidnel, M. J, Sources of Dramatic Theory: Volume 2: Voltaire to Hugo,
Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1994
Volume Two of what will be a super four-volume series. This is very advanced
and therefore to be read in libraries and only to be dipped into. Of particular
interest in this volume is the section on the effects of performance on
audience behaviour.
Simon, R, Introducing Marxism, London: A Communist Party Publication,
1986
Like the Rius beginners’ book, this is designed to give some options to
teachers and students over the choice of texts concerning the political
persuasion prevalent in Brecht’s work.
The Communist Party of Great Britain may have been many things but they did
produce extraordinarily accessible introductions to topics, and this is one of
them.
Spiers, R, Brecht’s Early Plays, London: Macmillan, 1982
Lengthy looks at the early plays, Baal, Drums in the Night, In the Jungle of the
Cities, The Life of Edward the Second of England, A Man’s a Man and operas
and the Lehrstücke.
Though written by one of those critics who has difficulty with the fact that
Brecht is both a first-class artist and a Marxist, this is a useful companion to the
early plays.
Spiers, R, Bertolt Brecht, London: Macmillan, 1987
Spiers is better on the analyses of the plays than he is helpful on the ‘hows’ of
any one production. Nevertheless, this handy volume covers five of the later
plays in some detail: Saint Joan of the Stockyards; Mother Courage and Her
Children; The Life of Galileo; The Good Person of Szechwan and The Caucasian
Chalk Circle. There is a useful, general chapter on Brecht’s practical approach
to theatre.
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Stevenson, R, and Wallace, G (eds.), Scottish Theatre Since the Seventies,
Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 1996
Olga Taxidou’s ‘Epic Theatre in Scotland’ is clearly the most obvious choice of
reading from this wide-ranging book: there are other moments with
interesting passages concerning Brecht in Scotland.
Styan, J L, Modern Drama in Theory and Practice: Volume 3. Expressionism
and Epic Theatre, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1983
Last of a three-part survey of modern theatre that is as lucid and engaging as
the other two volumes. Highly recommended.
Thomson, P (with a conclusion by Gardner, V), Mother Courage and Her
Children, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1997
A whole study devoted to the production history of a single play. Outstanding.
Thoss, M, Brecht for Beginners, London: Writers and Readers Ltd, 1994
This is Brecht’s entire life and work drawn as a comic book, with text, line
drawings and photographs. It is highly entertaining but the title ‘for
Beginners’ is extremely misleading.
Völker, K, Brecht: A Biography, trans. Nowell, J, London: Marion Boyars, 1979
Charts Brecht’s early development and influences – Rimbaud, Wedekind,
Shakespeare, Kipling, and others – his long association with Caspar Neher and
his penchant for collaboration.
A chapter on Baal (pp44–50) also looks at Brecht’s perpetual revisions of the
play over the years, due mostly to the fact that it was originally written before
he became a Marxist and later Brecht wanted to introduce elements of his
Marxist beliefs into the play.
An analysis of In The Jungle of the Cities (pp75–83) deals with Brecht’s use of
Chicago as a distancing effect, to be used in later years, most particularly in
Arturo Ui (the collaboration of Margarete Steffin on Ui is dealt with on p271).
Volker also looks at Man is Man (pp118–124), Round Heads and Pointed
Heads (pp227–229) – which Völker believes to be a much neglected parable –
and the debt Brecht owed to Shakespeare’s Measure for Measure.
There is a great series of twenty-four photographs of the didactic play What is
the Price of Iron? that clearly emphasise its anti-naturalist staging and design,
its early Epic techniques and Brecht’s collaboration with Ruth Berlau.
Völker goes on to look at Saint Joan of the Stockyards (yet again set in
Chicago) on pp152–159; Elisabeth Hauptmann’s collaboration, its drawing on
his earlier In the Jungle of the Cities and the influence of Shakespeare on this
play. Herr Puntila and his Servant Matti is considered on pp273–281.
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There is also an excellent insight into Brecht’s Hollywood stay (pp282–294)
during which he worked on fifty film projects, sold only one but managed to
make a great deal of money from other writing and the selling of the rights to
projects. Völker then focuses on Brecht’s move to New York (pp295–314), his
visit to the House Committee on Un-American Activities, his return to Europe
and the beginning of the Berliner Ensemble (from p335), and the central role
Helene Weigel played in it.
The chapter ‘My Pupils and Friends’ (pp344–350), that details the end of
Brecht’s life, does not shy away from Brecht’s notorious philandering, though
it is not particularly kind to Weigel, either (and nor was Brecht by the sound
of it).
A great read. Very compassionate, sympathetic and positive regarding Brecht
but its strength is its determination to be as honest about him as possible.
Whitford, F (exhibition curator), and Wood, A (text editor), The Berlin of
George Grosz: Drawings, Watercolours and Prints, 1912–1930, Royal
Academy of Arts, London, (1977) New Haven and London: Yale University
Press, 1997
Grosz, though criticised for his politics by Brecht, was a friend and occasional
collaborator. He designed Piscator’s The Good Soldier Schwejk in 1928 and
provided some drawings for some of Brecht’s poetry.
His broad caricatures are a clue to some of the more exaggerated design
elements in early Brecht productions.
Willett, J, Expressionism, London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1970
A worthy piece on contextual information.
Willett, J, The New Sobriety, 1917–1933: Art and politics in the Weimar
period, London: Thames and Hudson, 1978
A broad overview of the artistic movements of the period. A first-rate study.
Willett, J, The Weimar Years: A Culture Cut Short, London: Thames and
Hudson, 1984
This period is a wonderful example for anybody interested in the relationship
between art and politics, society and culture. From the November Revolution
of 1918, to Expressionism, Bauhaus, the New Objectivity (Neue Sachlichkeit)
and, of course, Brecht. Willett provides another excellent text on the subject.
Willett, J, Caspar Neher: Brecht’s Designer, London: Methuen, 1986
Excellent resource, full of articles, sketches and photographs on the work of
Neher, both with Brecht and with others.
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Willett, J, The Theatre of the Weimar Republic, New York: Holmes and Meier
Publishing Inc., 1988
For a change, this is not as readable as some of Willett’s other work, bogged
down as it is with lists of dates and information. However, it is still a
thoroughly interesting achievement. (It is due to be re-issued in 2000.)
Williams, R, Drama from Ibsen to Brecht, London: Penguin, rev. 1968
A classic text with a short chapter on Brecht placing him in a historical process
and theatrical context.
Wright, E, Postmodern Brecht: a re-presentation, London: Routledge, 1989
Someone had to write this book, of course. Brecht is open to claims by
postmodernists to be one of their own due, for instance, to the disruption of
narrative (among other practices and beliefs) and Wright duly claims aspects of
his theory and some of his early playtexts for the postmodernist cause – one
might almost hear a plaintive riposte from Brecht’s graveside.
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