Cabaret Brecht: Brighton, 17th - 21st November 2009Plays poems and songs by the great artist and agitator, Bertolt Brecht, performed in an intimate cabaret setting with live piano accompaniment.
A rare chance to see lesser known material by one of the most important and influencial theatre makers of the 20th Century.
Brecht ended his artistic life as head of his own internationally renowned touring company, The Berliner Ensemble, but began it writing songs and skits for the Berlin cabaret circuit, some of which he performed himself. The development of his own theatre was influenced by notorious cabaret starts such as the clown Karl Valentin, who used picture cards to comment on the action in his scenes and wrote satirical songs in verse that critiqued the society and politics of the day.
Brecht was a prolific writer and collaborator, compiling a large body of work throughout his lifetime. As well as the plays for which he is famous, he also wrote simple and striking poetry. The Threepenny Opera, his well known collaboration with composer Kurt Weill, was only one of many such collaborations with other influential composers such as Hanns Eisler and Paul Dessau.
Cabaret Brecht weaves together some of this fantastically rich and entertaining material. This is a great introduction to his work and a must see for anyone who has ever been intrigued by Brecht and the versions of the world he puts before us on the stage.
That was the publicity, now for some photos of myself and my fellow cast-members in performance...
2 comments:
Can Verfremdungseffekt and cuteness go hand in hand?
(and yes, my theater professor at the Complutense also loved trying to pronounce that)
Haha! that must have been so funny to hear. I remember my teacher for Teatro hispanoamericano trying to talk about the Brechtian tradtion and Verfremdungseffekt, and she just kept on stumbling until she settled upon "es una cosa Brechtiana"!
As for your other point: I shall leave that matter for the critics to decide.
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