Brecht and Political Theatre: The Mother on Stage (review)
Buy Issue for $25 at JHUP- Brecht and Political Theatre: The Mother on Stage
In Brecht and Political Theatre: The Mother on Stage, Laura Bradley employs production history as a mode of analysis to explicate the ways numerous productions of the same work are variously realized. Drawing from an impressive array of primary sources—including Brecht’s aesthetic, personal, and theoretical writings, prompt scripts, newspaper reviews, audience accounts, testimonials from Brecht’s many collaborators, and internal government documents from the German Democratic Republic (GDR) including ministry reports and Stasi records—Bradley follows through on her bold claim made near the beginning of the study that “the range and depth of this study far exceed those of most production histories” (16). The author demonstrates both the mutability of performance texts within differing sociopolitical contexts and the value of production history as a method of inquiry.
Within that broadly stated goal, Bradley focuses on “the development of Brecht’s political theatre, the dissemination and reception of his staging methods, the institutional development of the Berliner Ensemble (BE), and Brecht’s influence on twentieth-century political theatre in and beyond Germany” (16). These various tasks are carried out over the course of five chapters, four of which cover distinct eras of German history, and the fifth devoted to significant non-German-language productions. By way of chronological organization, she successfully constructs identifiable “lines of development, continuity, and change in German political theatre” (17).
The first chapter is concerned with the premier production of Die Mutter and provides a foundation for later comparisons. More precisely, Bradley emphasizes the interplay between contrasting structures, narratives, strategies, and functions in the 1932 staging, and considers the ways Die Mutter “combines traditional ‘dramatic’ techniques with Brecht’s more radical claims for ‘epic’ form” (36). The author identifies this production as the catalyst for Brecht’s recognition that “political theatre can activate only those who are predisposed to share its interests” (56). Critical reactions to the production are effectively arranged to highlight the ways in which the anti-formalist leftist establishment and bourgeois critics shared opposition to the piece. By mining vast records pertaining to the production process, ranging from source material to critical and audience reception, Bradley is able make a strong case for the emergence of Brecht’s later dialectical theatre from this 1932 production.
The following chapters track the differences between the original staging and subsequent productions. As such, the second chapter examines BE productions of Die Mutter between the years 1951 and 1971. Here, Bradley establishes the political influence wielded by the East German government, yet also examines how the BE was able to highlight the play’s antiwar message. Central to her work is a consideration of the critical deficiencies in previous studies of Die Mutter, primarily the failure to note “the intensified antiwar agitation and the extent to which Brecht’s new approach reflected his awareness of the widespread antipathy to Communism in the GDR” (60). Throughout this chapter, Bradley examines the ways in which Brecht altered his original vision to promote the intersections among his ideology, the regime’s political objectives, and what he believed to be the greater good of the people, thus linking historical narrative and aesthetic practice.
The third chapter gives special attention to two prominent stagings of Die Mutter, in East Berlin in 1970 and West Berlin in 1974. The author tracks the relationship between differing political and cultural landscapes and relates them to artistic practice. Bradley methodically compares and contrasts the two productions in terms of concept, editing, acting style, performance aesthetic, and audience demographics and response. She successfully tracks a “shift away from Brecht’s socially inclusive approach of 1951, towards . . . avant-garde experimentation for the artistic and intellectual elite at the BE” (133).
The fifth chapter is concerned with postmodern pastiche and post-Soviet views of Marxism and socialism as expressed through productions staged during the years following the fall of the Berlin Wall and up through 2003. Here, Bradley focuses on connections to the Iraq war...
