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Bertolt Brecht: United States
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Living in an era of great ideological upheaval, Brecht was influenced by the works of Karl Marx and developed his own leftist political agenda. He left Germany for the United States after his works were banned by the government there, but he continued writing. Making use of the devices he introduced in order to ensure his political message would reach his audience, Brecht's works have become very influential in the study of drama.
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With the centennial of his birth approaching in 1998, Bertolt Brecht's controversial reception in general and in the United States in particular, is coming into clearer focus. One of the great dramatists of the 20th century, Brecht has been viewed as an ardent proponent of social change, an avid advocate of a just world that he defined in terms of socialism, and an adamant foe of capitalism for whose demise he hoped. With the opening of the Berlin Wall in 1989, the political and economic milieu of Europe has changed drastically, and socialist writers are now being studied from a fresh perspective.
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Brecht believed the stage should be brightly lit at all times; special effects to create mood were not allowed. (Logically, he could have allowed it, if accompanied by some device to draw attention to it - such as a statement from a character.) The sources of light should be plainly visible - just as those over a boxing-ring (Brecht's comparison).
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One example is Leben Eduards des Zweiten von England, the adaptation of Christopher Marlowe's Edward II that Brecht undertook in 1923 in collaboration with Lion Feuchtwanger. Performed and published in 1924, the play's dramatic action concerns Edward's overthrow, a plot prompted by what is perceived as a socially disruptive sexual relationship, the monarch's physical and emotional infatuation with Gaveston, in Brecht's version an attractive butcher's son on whom the King lavishes his affections, sexual favors, and wealth. Edward refuses to relinquish his favorite even at the risk of the throne being forcibly wrested from him by his enemies. Edward loses Gaveston, the throne, and eventually, his life but gains in the process spiritual transcendence and the status of tragic hero.
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A theatre company formed by Brecht in East Berlin in 1949. This enabled Brecht to produce plays precisely as he wished. State subsidies allowed very thorough rehearsal. There were no “stars”, save perhaps, Brecht and his wife Helene Weigel.
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During the thirties, the subversive nature of his work sent Brecht from Germany to Scandinavia and later to the United States. The Good Woman of Setzuan, written during Brecht's exile and set in Communist China, is a parable of a young woman torn between obligation and reality, between love and practicality, and between her own needs and those of her friends and neighbors.
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