Bertolt Brecht - Education Scotland

8
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.
DRAMA