Communications from the International Brecht Society. Vol. V, No. 3 May, 1976 [s.l.]: International Brecht Society, May, 1976 https://digital.library.wisc.edu/1711.dl/M3HLL3GNJRCAF8S http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/ Copyright International Brecht Society. Used with Permission. The libraries provide public access to a wide range of material, including online exhibits, digitized collections, archival finding aids, our catalog, online articles, and a growing range of materials in many media. When possible, we provide rights information in catalog records, finding aids, and other metadata that accompanies collections or items. However, it is always the user's obligation to evaluate copyright and rights issues in light of their own use. 728 State Street | Madison, Wisconsin 53706 | library.wisc.edu £ E739 L ma : C:O\ MEM U.N 2.0 A.D OLN. from the A _————— TON f BREN Re ON AGE BRE Chet ByONCr de ay May, 1976 FROM THE EDITOR The next few months will see an unusual array of Brecht related activities, for the IBS members to choose from. Carl Weber will be teaching a Brecht Workshop for directors and actors at New York University, from July 6 to August 12 (see page 8). Possibly, Weber will also be teaching at Epic West, Berkeley, California, some time this summer (see page 13). In September, Werner Hecht of Berlin-GDR, will con- duct a series of seminars and introduce a number of films at Epic West/Pacific Film Archive in Berkeley (see pages 2 and 12). And for November (as announced in the February issue), the Fourth Brecht Congress will take place at the University of Texas in Austin. A revised registration form is included in this issue on pages 19/20. I hope that a great many IBS members will be able to attend these events. geb THE LIBRaRy OF THE YUL 14 19/6 ALU aE oF LLIN Epic West Announcements 2 Publications 9 On 3PO - Baxandall 3 Members' Forum a2) New York Report 5 Productions 13 Letter from J. Willett ia Membership List 1976 14 Brecht Congress Registration Form 19 2 EPIC WEST PRESENTS WERNER HECHT AND FILMS OF BERTOLT BRECHT AND THE BERLINER ENSEMBIE Epic West is proud to announce a series of films documenting the work of Bertolt Brecht and the Berliner Ensemble, to be held from September 17 to 29, 1976. The series will be introduced by Werner Hecht, a major authority on Brecht in the German Democratic Republic, who will also chair a group of seminars on Brecht, the stage, and the cinema. For viewers in the United States, this series will be the first opportunity to view the legendary productions of the Berliner Ensemble firsthand. Included in the series are filmed productions of Brecht's THE MOTHER, COURAGE, MOTHER and SZNORA CARRAR'S RIFTES, as well as the Ensemble production of Erwin Strittmatter's KATZGRABEN, directed by Brecht. Rounding out the series are several documentaries Brecht and on his co-workers: BERTOLT BRECHT, HELENE WEIGEL, HANNS EISLER, and PAUL DESSAU. Incorporating rare document- ary materials, these films sketch the processes orative of collab- work in the theatre and on film. They also the continuing depict influence of Brecht's theories and in activities the country which he chose as his home following War II. World (Cont'd on page 12) saan COMMUNICATIONS - THE BRECHT NEWSLETTER - Vol. V No. 3 (1976) Published by The International Brecht Society Editor : Gisela E. Bahr Consultant : John B. Fuegi J Correspondence with regard to newsletter items, Dept of GR BoA.Le, to the Editor Miami University, Oxford, Ohio Correspondence regarding 45056 dues, yearbook, to BRECHT-J AHRBUCH Dept of Comp Lit, U of Wisconsin, Milwaukee, Wisconsin 53201 2 Review THE THREE PENNY OPERA directed by Richard Foreman by Lee Baxandall Opened May 1, 1976. Translation by Ralph Manheim and John Willett. Directed by Richard Foreman. Musical Direction by Stanley Silverman. Scenic Design by Douglas W. Schmidt. Costumes by Theoni V. Aldredge. Lighting by Pat Collins. At the Vivian Beaumont Theatre of Lincoln Center. Produced by Joseph Papp. This production had a lot going against its success. The six-year-long run of the Carmen Capalbo production of the fifties, at the Theatre de Lys, remains vivid in many memories, not only for the unforgettable performance of Lotte Lenya as Jenny, but altogether for the raw vitality and scathing finesse of the performances and music. Foreman's production, in contrast, depends on a new trans- lation which is deflected and fussy in the English-vernac- ular style; one misses perhaps one-half the language, and that which does come across is ungestural and for the most part not amusing and incisive at all. In its claims to be more "abrasive" and political than the Blitzstein lyrics, the new translation manages mostly to club-foot about, including into some sequenced "shits" which just sound gross in these mouths, in this context. Blitzstein's deft and gestural language is infinitely preferable to this hodgepodge of Britishisms. Take the punch line of the second act finale, in Blitzstein's version: : First feed the face / And then talk right and wrong This becomes, in the Manheim-Willett text: Food is the first thing / Morals follow on That scans alright in an academic prose context, although it is scarcely gripping; but Blitzstein's wording implodes into the mind, never to be forgotten. It is, so to speak, the difference between "the" and "theatre". Furthermore, what meaning Blitzstein's text may have muted for the sake of lyric or cutting felicity, the pro- duction values quite made up. Did the Army Song fail to mention the darker skin of the "population" subjugated? The mock-conquest enacted during the singing of the song left one in no doubt it was the British Imperial Army in question. The lyrics and lines of the Foreman production got no such help from the performance. And this was the .other great obstacle to its success. Beautifully dressed (Cont'd next page) 4 Cont'd from page 3 - THREE PENNY OPERA though the Foreman production is, beautifully set and lighted, there is no living vitality in the character relationships. It is a petty-business world Brecht depicts in this work, and meant to be as lively as Orchard Street sidewalk marketing, with emotions and deals out-front and the gestures, the familiarity and hostilities, equally free. None of that in Foreman's version. You cannot believe Polly is the daughter of her parents; you scarcely can believe the Peachums are really in the beggar trade; you absolutely cannot believe that Macheath is the sensuous, seductive, murderous personage the lines tell us he is. The Theatre de Lys production by Capalbo scarcely had more than a board platform and a handful of actors and a couple of musical instruments as resources -- but it made us believe in the vitality of mankind and of business-dealings, so cheerful and shared were the happinesses among characters, so final and vengeful were the fights. Capalbo's actors connected. Foreman's talk and look past one another. And yet, and yet. If perfection of language and authority of direction were all, theatre workers every- where would remember and look to the production of The Three Penny Opera at Brecht's own Berliner Ensemble as the stand- ard to reach. But one can't do that. I've never boring seen a more production of Dreigroschenoper than that at Brecht's own theatre, staged by Eric ngel. Foreman's production seems to skirt that kind of formalistic stylization which no longer has a vital center. But Foreman evoids the disaster, for one reason alone: Rather than do a Three Penn Cpere which lacks a vital center, he has done his pee ion around a milieu of characters who lack that vitality. This distinction is some- times hard to get clear. I think it is not always maintained in the production. But for the most part, and superbly its at best, Foreman's approach transforms the petty-bourgeois characters of Brecht into the high-bouwedis manners own universe of his of meaning. It's a sharp swerve in the charac- ters themselves and in the meaning of the rather play. But it works wondrously well, by the end of the evening. : The price of giving Foreman his right of interpretation is the loss | of that vitality of the small and struggling bourgeoisie. When Macheath speaks his final utterance the injustice done about to the petty crooks while the -- the bankers and big crooks other capitalists -- g0 scot-free, becomes implausible, because it this Macheath has looked and (cont'd page 10) o Report BRECHT AND WEILL IN NEW YORK 1975/76 by Renata Berg-Pan The second half of the 1975/76 theater season in New York City clearly stood under the aegis of a Brecht/Weill revival, for which the desperate financial situation of the city might very well be responsible. Many a visitor to New York this year might feel reminded of the Twenties in Berlin, with its host of unemployed, its inflation, and a sense of insecurity that found alleviation through escape into theater. Local newspapers and other reports commenting on the New York scene tell us that the arts have never flourished more brill- iantly than now, despite (or because) of the unprecedented financial crisis and the sense of doom hanging over the city like a nuclear mushroom. The La Mama Theater, unquestionably the most professional off-Broadway troupe in New York, performed Brecht's Good Woman of Setzuan early this year, charging the spectator the flat sum of $5.00 for the privilege of sitting on the naked floor or standing up to see their show.