Biography of Bertolt Brecht

Corruption at the theatre

10 February 1898
August 14, 1956
Bertolt Brecht was born on 10 February 1898 in Augsburg (Bavaria) from wealthy family (is the son, in fact, the ceo of a major industrial enterprise). Performs in Munich first theatrical experiences, performing as author-actor: his debut is strongly influenced by expressionism. Early adheres to Marxist deployment and develops the theory of "epic Theatre" according to which the viewer must not identify themselves during impersonation, but must try to keep a critical distance, to reflect on what they see on stage.
From the author, instead, songs, parody elements and a screenplay very well studied should be used to create an effect of alienation, a critical detachment. Bertolt Brecht in 1928 reached a great success with the representation of '' Threepenny Opera '', Remaking of famous English folk drama of ' 700 by j. Gay (known as the "Beggar's Opera"). The main characters are the King of the beggars who organises the "job" as a bargain any (and from which it draws considerable fees), the unscrupulous criminal Mackie Messer, which basically is an example of bourgeois respectability, and the Chief of police, a rotten and corrupt.
Brecht staged here a spectacular representation, full of twists, biting songs and ballads with beautiful and written by Kurt Weill (which will become one of the most famous of his eclectic production of composer). In this work, the difference between criminals and respectable people disappears completely, money will make all the same, that is corrupt. Critical of the society of the time, Brecht adheres to Marxism and in 1933, as told when comes to power the Nazis, compelled to leave Germany.
Peregrina for 15 years through many countries but after 1941 he settled in the United States. At the end of the war, become suspect to the us authorities for his political and social controversy, leaves the United States and moved to the German Democratic Republic, in Berlin, where he founded the Berliner Ensemble Theater Company of '' concrete '' attempt to realize his ideas. Afterwards, the "ensemble" will become one of the most successful theater companies. Despite his Marxist beliefs, however, is often at odds with the authorities in Eastern Germany. Brecht is the author of numerous poems that can be considered among the most touching of the twentieth-century German lyric. His poetic writing is straightforward, wants to be useful, doesn't get us nowhere fantasy world or enigmatic. Yet it has a charm, a beauty that is hard to escape. Grazanti encyclopedia of literature writes, by the way: "Even the work of Brecht, maybe even higher than theater, has its roots in dramatic language; and that is why it is so often monologue, ballad, Lied. But it's also shock of affirmations, abbreviated dialectic. The word is nude, current, outrageously prose ", more" receives from the violence of the illumination where the ability to glow." Bertolt Brecht in Berlin on August 14, 1956 dies at the age of 58 years due to a heart attack.
Article contributed by the team of collaborators.