Bertolt Brecht

Die Aggression der Achsenm?te Deutschland, Italien und Japan ?berzog Mitte des 20. Jahrhunderts den Erdball mit Krieg. Zentren waren Europa und der pazifische Raum. ?er 50 Millionen Tote, verw?stete L?er und St?e waren nach ?ber sechsj?igem Ringen die furchtbare Bilanz. 360 Ereignisse dokumentieren im "Tagebuch des 2. Weltkrieges" die politische und milit?sche Eskalation, den Kriegsverlauf bis zum Sieg der Alliierten unter F?hrung der Vereinigten Staaten von Amerika.

A programme text edition of Brecht's famous parable, this new translation by David Harrower was published to accompany the production at the Young Vic, London, in May 2008 and is based on a previously unpublished version of Brecht's play. Three Gods are on a journey to find out if there are any good people left on earth. Only Shen Te, a good-hearted prostitute, offers them shelter. With the money they give her she opens a tobacco shop. At once everyone needs her help. Her livelihood is in danger. Worse, she is falling in love with Sun, a pilot, who is robbing her blind. Her hard hearted cousin Shui Ta arrives to protect her. Who is he and how can good people stay good in a world of poverty and cruelty?'Brecht is the key figure of our time and all theatre today starts from or returns to his achievement.' Peter Brook

Written in 1940 during Brecht's exile in Finland, Puntila is one of his greatest creations - to be ranked alongside Galileo and Mother Courage. A hard-drinking Finnish landowner, Puntila suffers from a divided personality: when drunk he is human and humane; when sober, surly and self-centred. The play contains some of the best comedy Brecht wrote for the theatre. This translation by John Willett is accompanied by Brecht's own notes and relevant texts, as well as an extensive introduction and commentary by John Willett and Ralph Manheim, editor's of Brecht's collected plays in English.

Brecht's operatic play produced with Hauptmann, Neher and Weill was first staged in 1930. The story is that three criminals create the city of Mahagonny. Drinking, gambling, prize-fights and similar activities are the sole occupation of the inhabitants, and money rules. Mahagonny is threatened by a hurricane at the end of Act 1, which despite much anticipation and causing much distress simply bypasses the city. In Act 2 following the hurricane nothing is forbidden and various scenes of debauchery occur. Jenny and Jim try to leave but Jim cannot pay his debts and is arrested. Another character arraigned for murder, bribes his way out of it, but Jim has no money and is condemned to death for not paying for his whisky. The opera ends with discontent destroying the city, which burns as the inhabitants march away. Translated and with commentary by Steve Giles, this critical edition is the first translation into English of the approved Versuche text of 1930/1. An important addition to Brecht scholarship, this edition contains a full introduction to the play, Brecht's writing and notes on the work, editorial notes and variants, and a study of contemporary productions and responses.

This play, written during Brecht's exile to the United States and set in pre-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 neighbours.

The play is a parable inspired by the Chinese play Chalk Circle. Written at the close of World War II, the story is set in the Caucasus mountains of Georgia, and retells the tale of King Solomon and a child claimed by two mothers. A chalk circle is metaphorically drawn around a society misdirected in its priorities. Brecht's statements about class are cloaked in the innocence of a fable that whispers insistently to the audience.

This Student Edition of Brecht's classic satire on the rise of Hitler features an extensive introduction and commentary that includes a plot summary, discussion of the context, themes, characters, style and language as well as questions for further study and notes on words and phrases in the text. It is the perfect edition for students of theatre and literature. Described by Brecht as 'a gangster play that would recall certain events familiar to us all', Arturo Ui is a witty and savage satire of the rise of Hitler -- recast by Brecht into a small-time Chicago gangster's takeover of the city's greengrocery trade. Using a wide range of parody and pastiche - from Al Capone to Shakespeare's Richard III and Goethe's Faust - Brecht's compelling parable continues to have relevance wherever totalitarianism appears today. Written during the Second World War in 1941, the play was one of the Berliner Ensemble's most outstanding box-office successes in 1959, and has continued to attract a succession of major actors, including Leonard Rossiter, Christopher Plummer, Antony Sher and Al Pacino.

A morality masterpiece, The Caucasian Chalk Circle powerfully demonstrates Brecht's pioneering theatrical techniques. This version by Frank McGuinness was published to coincide with the National Theatre's production which toured the UK in 2007. A servant girl sacrifices everything to protect a child abandoned in the heat of civil war. Order restored, she is made to confront the boy's biological mother in a legal contest over who deserves to keep him. The comical judge calls on an ancient tradition - the chalk circle - to resolve the dispute. Who wins? This version by Frank McGuinness was first presented by the National Theatre in 1997 and revived in 2007, opening at the Gulbenkian Theatre, Canterbury, on 8 January.

Mother Courage and Her Children is widely regarded as Brecht's best work, a theatrical landmark and one of the most powerful anti-war plays in history. This translation by Michael Hofmann was published to coincide with the UK tour by English Touring Theatre in 2006. In this chronicle of the Thirty Years War of the seventeenth century, Mother Courage follows the armies back and forth across Europe, selling provisions and liquor from her canteen wagon. As the action of the play progresses between the years 1624 and 1646 she loses her children to the war but remains indomitable, refusing to part with her livelihood - the wagon. The play is one of the most celebrated examples of Epic Theatre and of Brecht's use of alienation effect to focus attention on the issues of the play above the individual characters. It remains regarded as one of the greatest plays of the twentieth century and one of the great anti-war plays of all time. The Berlin production of 1949, with Helene Weigel as Mother Courage, marked the foundation of the Berliner Ensemble. Translated by the celebrated, German-born translator Michael Hofmann who has won multiple awards for his translation of works from German into English, the stage production was acclaimed for his 'gutsy,colloquial translation' (The Stage).

Eine einzigartige Zusammenstellung kostbarer Tondokumente wie unter anderem die Hörspiele Heilige Johanna der Schlachthöfe und Der Ozeanflug oder die legendäre Vernehmung vor dem Kongressausschuss zur Untersuchung "unamerikanischer Aktivität". Besondere Höhepunkte sind die historischen Aufnahmen von Brecht, wie An die Nachgeborenen, das einzig überlieferte von ihm selbst gesprochene Gedicht. Ebenso gewinnt die Moritat von Mackie Messer aus der Dreigroschenoper, gesungen von Brecht, eine ganz eigene Intensität und Eindringlichkeit. Diese Kombination aus Hörspielaufnahmen, Liedern und Brecht-Äußerungen zu Politik, Philosophie, Dramen und Inszenierungen ist eine glänzende Sammlung von Originaltönen, die man jedem ans Herz legen möchte. Ein Muss für alle Brecht-Fans und solche, die ihn entdecken wollen! Inhalt: An die Nachgeborenen (Gedicht) Der Ozeanflug (Hörspiel 1930) Heilige Johanna der Schlachthöfe (Uraufführung des Hörspiels 1932) Die Maßnahme (Ausschnitt aus dem Lehrstück 1931) Moritat von Mackie Messer (aus: Die Dreigroschenoper 1929) Und was bekam des Soldaten Weib? (Lied 1942) Hinter der Trommel her (Parodie des Horst-Wessel-Liedes 1943) Lied einer deutschen Mutter (Lied 1943) Ausschnitt aus der Vernehmung von Bertolt Brecht vor dem Ausschuss des Kongresses zur Untersuchung unamerikanischer Aktivitäten (1947) Judenhure (Ballade 1950) Rundfunkgespräch mit Bertolt Brecht über die Inszenierungspraxis des Berliner Ensembles (1952) Aufruf von Bertolt Brecht gegen die Wiederbewaffnung West-Deutschlands (1952) Bertolt Brecht über das Buch des Berliner Ensembles Theaterarbeit (1952) Ausschnitte aus der Diskussion im Hotel "Sachsenhof" in Berlin-Schöneberg (1954) Rede von Bertolt Brecht anlässlich der Entgegennahme des Stalin-Friedenspreises (1955) Ausschnitte aus der Rede von Bertolt Brecht am IV. Deutschen Schriftstellerkongress (1956) Ansprache von Bertolt Brecht auf der Abschlusstagung des IV. Deutschen Schriftstellerkongresses (1956) Probemitschnitt des Berliner Ensembles Leben des Galilei (1956) Das Lied von der Unzulänglichkeit menschlichen Strebens (aus: Die Dreigroschenoper 1929) Hörfunkinszenierungen, Lesungen, O-Töne

Bleiben wird von Bertolt Brecht vornehmlich die Lyrik", prophezeit Marcel Reich-Ranicki. Die in diesem Band versammelten und chronologisch geordneten Brecht-Gedichte werden von Schriftstellern, Kritikern und Literaturwissenschaftlern lebendig und packend kommentiert. Die kurz gehaltenen, informativen Kommentare von Interpreten wie Peter Demetz, Barbara Frischmuth, Robert Gernhardt, Ludwig Harig, Joachim Kaiser, Ruth Klüger, Günter Kunert, Peter von Matt, Doris Runge, Peter Rühmkorf, Peter Wapnewski und Gabriele Wohmann machen die Gedichtlektüre zu einem abwechslungsreichen Lese-erlebnis.

Wer hätte das für möglich gehalten? Fast 75 Jahre nach der ersten Veröffentlichung von Keuner-Texten (1930), für die Brecht zwischen 1929 und 1956 immer wieder neue Themen fand, und auch zehn Jahre nach den intensiven Recherchen für die große Brecht-Ausgabe kommen jetzt Keuner-Texte zum Vorschein, die noch niemand zuvor hat lesen können. In der Schweiz sind u.a. insgesamt fünfzehn unbekannte Keuner-Geschichten aufgetaucht. Sie fanden sich in einer Mappe mit der Aufschrift ?geschichten vom h k?, aus der Brecht 1948 in Zürich eine Auswahl für die Kalendergeschichten getroffen hat. Die Mappe bildet die Grundlage für den hier vorgelegten Band der Geschichten vom Herrn Keuner als ? Zürcher Fassung?. Faksimiles der neuen Dokumente erlauben einen Einblick in die Werkstatt des Verfassers. Die Ausgabe erscheint zur Ausstellung ? Neues vom Herrn Keuner?, in der die Stiftung Archiv der Akademie der Künste zum ersten Mal die Keuner-Mappe und andere Dokumente aus dem Zürcher Konvolut im Original präsentiert: Berlin, Liebermann-Haus, 2. Oktober bis 28. November 2004.