This updated Companion offers students crucial guidance on virtually every aspect of the work of this complex and controversial writer. It brings together the contrasting views of major critics and active practitioners, and this edition introduces more voices and themes. The opening essays place Brecht's creative work in its historical and biographical context and are followed by chapters on single texts, from The Threepenny Opera to The Caucasian Chalk Circle, on some early plays and on the Lehrstücke. Other essays analyse Brecht's directing, his poetry, his interest in music and his work with actors. This revised edition also contains additional essays on his early experience of cabaret, his significance in the development of film theory and his unique approach to dramaturgy. A detailed calendar of Brecht's life and work and a selective bibliography of English criticism complete this provocative overview of a writer who constantly aimed to provoke.
A Brecht calendar Glendyr Sacks; Preface; Part I. Context and Life: 1. Brecht's Germany: 1898-1933 Eve Rosenhaft; 2. Brecht's Lives Peter Thomson; 3. Brecht and cabaret Oliver Double and Michael Wilson; Part II. The Plays: 4. Brecht's early plays Tony Meech; 5. The Threepenny Opera Stephen McNeff; 6. Brecht's clowns: Man is Man and after Joel Schechter; 7. Learning for a new society: the Lehrstück Roswitha Mueller; 8. The Good Person of Szechwan Christopher McCullough; 9. Mother Courage and Her Children Robert Leach; 10. Life of Galileo: between contemplation and the command to participate Catherine Turner; 11. The Caucasian Chalk Circle: the view from Europe Maria Shevtsova; Part III. Theories and Practices: 12. Brecht and the Berliner ensemble - the making of a model Carl Weber; 13. Revolutionising theatre: Brecht's reinvention of the dramaturgy Mary Luckhurst; 14. Key words in Brecht's theory and practice of theatre Peter Brooker; 15. Brecht's poetry Philip Thomson; 16. Brecht and music: theory and practice Kim H. Kowalke; 17. Brecht and stage design: the Bühnenbuildner and the Bühnenbauer Christopher Baugh; 18. Actors on Brecht Margaret Eddershaw; 19. Brecht and film Martin Brady; Bibliography.
