To understand Baal, perhaps it is necessary to forget what
you know about Bertolt Brecht.
Put aside that he was one of the most influential dramatists of the
20th Century and a key player in the Epic Theatre movement, which
sought to provoke rational thought. Overlook that he was the
creator of theatrical masterpieces including The Threepenny
Opera, Mother Courage and Her Childrenand The
Caucasian Chalk Circle.
Brecht wrote Baalin 1918 before he achieved any of these
things, when he was simply a 20-year-old student at Munich
University trying to come to grips with the world. He had recently
lost friends in the First World War - in which he endured a brief
stint in military service as a medical orderly - when he became
aware of the play Der Einsame (The Loner)by future Nazi
dramatist Hanns Johst. The play represented the life of the poet as
one of romantic isolation.
Disagreeing with the premise of Johst's work, Brecht retaliated by
writing his own play about a loner poet. Named after the god of
thunder and fertility, Brecht's anti-hero Baal is violent and
antisocial, struggling to balance his creative urges with the
conventions of society.
Although first written in 1918, Baalwas not performed
until 8 December 1923, when it opened in a theatre in Leipzig and
immediately caused a stir. By this time the Weimar Republic - the
democratic republic that replaced the imperial system of government
in Germany in 1919 - was well established. Hyperinflation and
political extremism were major issues for Germany at this time.
Yet, despite this, the Republic inspired a strong cultural
revolution that lasted from 1923 until the end of the decade.
This lead to the evolution of Bauhaus architecture, a vigorous
cabaret and music scene and the development of a form of theatre
that shunned naturalism and spectacle. In addition to Brecht, other
influential cultural figures in this period included artists Max
Beckmann, Max Ernst and George Grosz, novelists Franz Kafka and
Thomas Mann, and architects Walter Gropius and Mies van der Rohe.
The period was highly productive, and Brecht alone produced more
than 20 plays before the success of the Weimar Republic began to
wane in 1930.
Brecht rewrote Baalseveral times throughout his 20s,
possibly to incorporate his evolving theatrical and political
views, which became increasingly Marxist, or in response to major
changes in his personal life, which included the birth of his first
son Frank in 1919 (with his then-girlfriend Paula Banholzer) and
the death of his mother in 1920.
Brecht later married twice, first to opera singer Marianne Zoff
(1922 until 1927) and then to actress Helene Weigel (1930 until
Brecht's death in 1956), and fathered five children.
Alex Lalak
Baal, Wharf 1 Theatre, 7 May - 11 June, 2011.
Feature: Brecht and Baal
Date posted: 11 Apr 2011Author: STC