Bertolt Brecht: Mutter Courage und ihre Kinder 4
Page 5
1943
Spring: Brecht goes to New York for three months – first visit since 1935 – where he stays with Berlau till May and plans a wartime Schweik play with Kurt Weill. In Zurich the Schauspielhaus gives world premières of The Good Person of Szechwan and Galileo. November: his first son Frank is killed on the Russian front.
1944
British and Americans land in Normandy (June); Germans driven out of France by end of the year. Heavy bombing of Berlin, Hamburg and other German cities. Brecht works on The Caucasian Chalk Circle, and with H. R. Hays on The Duchess of Malfi. His son by Ruth Berlau, born prematurely in Los Angeles, lives only a few days. Start of collaboration with Charles Laughton on English version of Galileo.
1945
Spring: Russians enter Vienna and Berlin. German surrender; suicide of Hitler; Allied military occupation of Germany and Austria, each divided into four Zones. Roosevelt dies; succeeded by Truman; Churchill loses elections to Attlee. June: Private Life of the Master Race (wartime adaptation of Fear and Misery scenes) staged in New York. August: US drops atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Japan surrenders. Brecht and Laughton start discussing production of Galileo.
1946
Ruth Berlau taken to hospital after a violent breakdown in New York. Work with Auden on Duchess of Malfi, which is finally staged there in mid-October – not well received. The Brechts have decided to return to Germany. Summer: A. A. Zhdanov re-affirms Stalinist art policies: Formalism bad, Socialist Realism good. Eisler’s brother Gerhart summoned to appear before the House Un-American Activities Committee. November: the Republicans win a majority in the House. Cold War impending.
1947
FBI file on Brecht reopened in May. Rehearsals begin for Los Angeles production of Galileo, with Laughton in the title part and music by Eisler; opens July 31. Brecht’s HUAC hearing October 30; a day later he leaves the US for Zurich.
1948
In Zurich renewed collaboration with Caspar Neher. Production of Antigone in Chur, with Weigel. Berlau arrives from US. Summer: Puntila world première at Zurich Schauspielhaus. Brecht completes his chief theoretical work, the Short Organum. Travel plans hampered because he is not allowed to enter US Zone (which includes Augsburg and Munich). Russians block all land access to Berlin. October: the Brechts to Berlin via Prague, to establish contacts and prepare production of Mother Courage.
1949
January: success of Mother Courage leads to establishment of the Berliner Ensemble. Collapse of Berlin blockade in May followed by establishment of West and East German states. Eisler, Dessau and Elisabeth Hauptmann arrive from US and join the Ensemble.
1950
Brecht gets Austrian nationality in connection with plan to involve him in Salzburg Festival. Long-drawn-out scheme for Mother Courage film. Spring: he and Neher direct Lenz’s The Tutor with the Ensemble. Autumn: he directs Mother Courage in Munich; at the end of the year The Mother with Weigel, Ernst Busch and the Ensemble.
1951
Selection of A Hundred Poems is published in East Berlin. Brecht beats off Stalinist campaign to stop production of Dessau’s opera version of Lucullus.
1952
Summer: at Buckow, east of Berlin, Brecht starts planning a production of Coriolanus and discusses Eisler’s project for a Faust opera.
1953
Spring: Stalin dies, aged 73. A ‘Stanislavsky conference’ in the East German Academy, to promote Socialist Realism in the theatre, is followed by meetings to discredit Eisler’s libretto for the Faust opera. June: quickly suppressed rising against the East German government in Berlin and elsewhere. Brecht at Buckow notes that ‘the whole of existence has been alienated’ for him by this. Khrushchev becomes Stalin’s successor.
1954
January: Brecht becomes an adviser to the new East German Ministry of Culture. March: the Ensemble at last gets its own theatre on the Schiffbauerdamm. July: its production of Mother Courage staged in Paris. December: Brecht awarded a Stalin Peace Prize by the USSR.
1955
August: shooting at last begins on Mother Courage film, but is broken off after ten days and the project abandoned. Brecht in poor health.
1956
Khrushchev denounces Stalin’s dictatorial methods and abuses of power to the Twentieth Party Congress in Moscow. A copy of his speech reaches Brecht. May: Brecht in the Charité hospital to shake off influenza. August 14: he dies in the Charité of a heart infarct.
1957
The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui, The Visions of Simone Machard and Schweyk in the Second World War produced for the first time in Stuttgart, Frankfurt and Warsaw respectively.
Round Heads and Pointed Heads
or
Money Calls to Money
A tale of horror
Collaborators: HANNS EISLER, EMIL HESSE-BURRI, ELISABETH HAUPTMANN, MARGARETE STEFFIN
Translator: TOM KUHN; songs by TOM KUHN, RALPH MANHEIM and JOHN WILLETT
Characters:
THEATRE DIRECTOR
Zaks (Round Heads):
THE VICEROY
MISSENA, his Privy Councillor
ANGELO IBERIN
CALLAS, a tenant farmer
NANNA, his daughter, a waitress in Madame Cornamontis’s coffeehouse
MRS CALLAS and her four small children
PARR, a tenant farmer
MOTHER SUPERIOR OF SAN BARABAS
ABBOT OF SAN STEFANO
ALFONSO SAZ, landowner
JUAN DUARTE, landowner
Ziks (Pointed Heads):
EMANUELE DE GUZMAN, landowner
ISABELLA, his sister
LOPEZ, a tenant farmer
MRS LOPEZ and her three small children
SEBASTIAN DE HOZ, landowner
MADAME CORNAMONTIS, proprietress of a coffeehouse
ATTORNEY OF THE DE GUZMAN FAMILY
HIGH COURT JUDGE
INSPECTOR
CALLAMASSI, a landlord
PALMOSA, a tobacconist
FAT WOMAN
CLERK, THREE HATSOS, TWO NUNS, IBERIN SOLDIERS, PEASANTS, CITIZENS
IGNATIO PERUINER, landowner
SECOND ATTORNEY, DOCTOR, GROCER, PEASANTS, CITIZENS
The population of the town of Luma, in which the play takes place, comprises Zaks and Ziks, two races, of whom the first have round and the second pointed heads. The pointed heads should be at least 15 cm higher than the round ones. But the round heads must be no less abnormal than the pointed ones.
PROLOGUE
Seven actors step in front of a low curtain: the director of the theatre, Governor Iberin, the rebellious tenant farmer, the landowner, his sister, Farmer Callas and his daughter. The last four are in their shirts. The Governor, in costume but without make-up, is holding a scale with two pointed and two round skulls; the rebel farmer is holding a scale with two fine and two scruffy outfits; he too is in costume but not made-up.
THEATRE DIRECTOR:
Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the show!
Bert Brecht, who wrote it, as I guess you know,
Travelled the wide world – if only as a refugee,
And what he witnessed on the way shocked even me.
This play’s about the things he saw:
Strife and conflict, even war.
He saw a white man wrestling with a black,
An angry yellow giant with a yellow midget on his back.
A Finn took up a stone and flung it at a Swede,
And someone with a snub nose punched a hook-nosed man and made him bleed.
Our playwright stopped to ask the cause, and heard
That in these parts a spectre is abroad:
The great distributor of skulls is on his rounds again,
A quack with snake oil in his pack for every man.
He keeps a stock of noses and bags of coloured skin
With which he stirs the folk against their kith and kin.
Far and wide you’ll hear it said
That all that matters t
hese days are the contours of your head,
And where the skull-man goes
People look more closely at your hair and skin and nose.
Most likely you’ll be beaten up or raped
If your head’s a bit irregularly shaped.
Our playwright was cross-questioned on occasion
Whether he cared if someone’s face was Slav or Jew or Asian,
Or were such things of little consequence?
And he replied: Of course, some people take offence
At little things, yet what impresses me
Is more than physiognomy.
There’s one thing matters more than all the rest
For it alone determines if you’re cursed or blessed.
I’d better make myself quite clear:
It’s rich and poor that really matters here.
And just in case you’d like some explanation
I’ve penned this parable in demonstration,
In which I prove beyond all doubt
That this is the difference to shout about.
So, dear audience, we’ll play his little game,
We’ve built a set here of a distant land, Yahoo by name.
The skull-distributor will distribute his pates,
And some will hasten off to meet their fates.
Yet Mister Brecht will also make quite sure
That we can tell the rich from poor.
He’ll share out costumes and rig the people out
According to their wealth and economic clout.
That’s it now, close the doors!
His Excellency the skull-distributor. Applause!
THE GOVERNOR comes forward and demonstrates his skull scales to the accompaniment of stage thunder:
I have two sorts of skulls here, as you see.
The difference isn’t trivial, you’ll agree:
This one is pointed, whereas this one here is round.
This one’s sick and rotten. This one sound.
Wherever injustice and misery hold sway,
This one is never far away.
Where there’s inequality, obesity or muscular degeneration –
Well, here’s your explanation.
Use my scales, and all will be laid bare:
Right is on this side …
He presses down with his finger on the scale with the round heads in it.
… wrong is over there.
DIRECTOR introducing the rebel farmer:
Now you, you outfitter, explain
Your scales and the clothes you use for weights
In order to determine men’s estates.
REBEL FARMER demonstrates his clothes scales:
The differences, I think, are plain –
These here are the good ones, those the bad.
We needn’t argue about that.
Walk around in this attire
And the level of respect you get will be appreciably higher
Than if you’re dressed in clothes like those.
That’s something everybody knows.
Use my scales, and all will be laid bare:
Who on this earth has the better share.
He presses down with his finger on the scale with the fine clothes in it.
DIRECTOR:
Our playwright, as you see, has scales with different norms.
With one he weighs the finery and the tatters,
And, with the other, skulls of different forms.
But then: he weighs the scales themselves, and that’s what really matters.
He has picked up the scales, one after the other, and weighed them in his hands. Now he gives them back and turns to his actors.
You act out the parable, it’s up to you
To choose your skulls and clothes in public view –
It’s all determined right here in the play –
And if our writer’s got it right
Your choice of clothes will seal your fate tonight
And not your head-shape. So no more delay!
FARMER reaching for two round heads:
We’ll take the round heads, daughter dear, these two.
LANDOWNER:
Pointed for us.
LANDOWNER’S SISTER:
It’s one of Brecht’s ‘effects’.
FARMER’S DAUGHTER:
The daughter of a Round Head is a Round Head too.
So I’m a Round Head of the weaker sex.
DIRECTOR:
And now the costumes.
The actors choose their costumes.
LANDOWNER:
I own the land, I’m rich.
FARMER:
I pay the dues, I’m poor.
LANDOWNER’S SISTER:
I am the landlord’s sister.
FARMER’S DAUGHTER:
And me, I’m just a whore.
DIRECTOR to the actors:
Is that clear? I trust you’ve understood?
ACTORS:
Oh quite!
DIRECTOR checking through once more:
Let’s see: Round and Pointed Heads, that’s good.
Poor and posher clothes: that looks all right.
And now the other props! As best we’re able
We’ll show the world afresh, done up as fable!
Our pantomime will demonstrate
Which of these distinctions really carries weight.
They all withdraw behind the curtain.
1
THE VICEROY’S PALACE
The Viceroy of Yahoo and his privy councillor Missena have been up all night. They are sitting in the Viceroy’s chamber surrounded by newspapers and sekt bottles. Missena is marking unpalatable sections of the newspapers with a big red pencil, for the attention of the Viceroy. Next door in the antechamber a shabby clerk is seated by a candle; a man stands with his back to the audience.
VICEROY:
Enough, Missena.
The day is dawning: all our calculations,
Creative twists, accounting sleights of hand
Have demonstrated, each and every time,
Precisely what we can’t afford to know,
And what, if we sat here till doomsday counting,
Would always be the outcome: the economic
Meltdown of the state. We’re …
MISSENA:
No, don’t say it!
VICEROY:
… bankrupt.
A stronger hand than mine is needed now.
Missena does not answer.
VICEROY with a glance at the newspapers:
Perhaps your sums aren’t right?
MISSENA:
They’re not that wrong!
VICEROY:
From time to time I like to read the papers
To see what state my country’s really in.
MISSENA:
My lord, production surpluses consume us.
Our country, fair Yahoo, depends on grain;
It lives, and may perhaps now die, by grain.
We’re sickening of a surfeit. Our prairies yield
Corn in such measure that the fortunate
Plough in their fortunes. Prices slump until
They scarcely justify the transport. The grain
Won’t even pay the cost of harvest. Sire,
The corn has risen up against the people.
And surpluses give way to shortage. Farmers
Refuse to pay their tithes. The state and all
Its institutions start to tremble. Landowners
Demand the government enforce their dues,
And take firm measures. Meanwhile in the south
The peasants rally round a flag which bears
A giant sickle: emblem, dire threat
Of peasant revolution. The state’s in crisis.
The Viceroy sighs. Missena’s words have struck a chord: he himself is a landowner.
VICEROY:
Suppose we raise a mortgage on the railways?
MISSENA:
We’ve done that,
twice.
VICEROY:
The excise?
MISSENA:
Done that too.
VICEROY:
The Big Five? Maybe they would guarantee
A preferential loan to help us out?
One third of all the profitable land
Belongs to them. They could, you know.
MISSENA:
Except …
They’d first insist we smash the Sickle which
Endangers everybody’s rents and dues.
VICEROY:
A fine thing that would be.
MISSENA:
The Big Five now
Oppose our government. They feel betrayed.
We’ve been too lax about the rents, they say.
VICEROY:
You mean, they’ve lost their confidence in me.
MISSENA:
And yet, between ourselves: you are yourself
Our largest feudal lord.
He has spoken the key word.
VICEROY rouses himself:
That’s very true!
I own great tracts of land. And so my failures
In government are hurting my own class.
My sympathy’s with those who now condemn me!
MISSENA:
There may be one solution, but of course
It could turn bloody …
VICEROY:
No, not that.
Don’t say it!
MISSENA:
No one can hear us here. War
Would furnish welcome markets for our wasted
Surpluses of grain, as well as sources
For the raw materials we lack.
VICEROY shaking his head vehemently:
No.
If but a single tank disturbs the streets
Of Luma, there’ll be such unrest that …
MISSENA:
The enemy within prevents us marching
Against our ancient enemies abroad.
For shame! When soldiers slink away and hide
Like vermin! A general scarcely dares to show
His face upon the streets! The people treat
Our men as if they were but common thieves.