Brecht, (Eugen) Bertolt (Friedrich)

Brecht, [Eugen] Bertolt [Friedrich] (1898–1956), playwright and director. The German Marxist playwright and librettist spent time in America as a refugee from Nazism. After he appeared before the House Un‐American Activities Committee in 1947, he left for Zurich and moved to East Germany in 1949. There he was given carte blanche and co‐founded (and until his death co‐directed) the Berliner Ensemble in East Berlin, producing his and other works. American playgoers know Brecht best for his book and lyrics to The Threepenny Opera. The work was one of several musicals he wrote with Kurt Weill in his Berlin days. Among his other works done with some frequency on American stages, thanks to Eric Bentley's translations and promotion efforts, are Galileo, The Good Woman of Setzuan, Happy End, The Caucasian Chalk Circle, Arturo Ui, and Mother Courage. Many of these plays exemplified Brecht's concept of epic theatre, which sometimes moved a story beyond the logical or expected unities of time and place, and which regularly imbued it with larger human and political meaning. His “alienation” technique was utilized to get his audiences to think, as opposed to conventional theatre technique, which invited them to become totally emotionally involved. His enormous influence, from plays and critical works alike, is felt in theatre and film to this day.