"Brecht Is the Only World-Famous German Playwright"

DW-WORLD.DE: Is it still possible today to create political and influential theater like Bertolt Brecht's, even 50 years after his death?

Claus Peymann: Theater always takes a political stance and represents a political opinion. It's difficult, of course, to determine whether theater -- even Brecht's -- directly changes society, but what would the world be like without theater? It's impossible even to imagine how terrible that would be.

Brecht himself carried on the tradition of Schiller and Lessing. He wanted a theater of enlightenment, he wanted to expose the powerful people and tear the masks off their faces. He had an immense love for justice and felt responsible for the oppressed. I think that, at heart, every theater represents this position today.

How do the Berliner Ensemble and its leadership make an effort to remain true to Brecht's wishes?

We've had a whole collection of politically out-spoken Brecht plays in our repertoire since the beginning. We've been performing "Arturo Ui," the great Hitler parable, for 11 years now -- a fantastic production by Heiner Müller, who is now dead.

Our newer Brecht pieces are also socially explosive. One of them is Brecht's "The Mother," based on Maxim Gorki's story of a woman who becomes a revolutionary in tsarist Russia. We also perform "Mother Courage and Her Children," Brecht's great anti-war drama, which makes it so apparent what happens when someone wants to make money from a war. Mother Courage loses all her children and falls into misery.

Brecht's dramas were written more than half a century ago? What can they tell us today?

A lot. We're currently doing "Saint Joan of the Stockyards," a drama set in the stockyards of Chicago in the 1920s. The play warns of the dangers of monopolies and is more relevant than ever today. In essence, globalization is nothing more than a daunting, worldwide monopoly that seems uncanny to us and can probably become very dangerous. People feel threatened by the effects of globalization. They fear mass unemployment and poverty.

"Saint Joan" takes place in a time that's very similar to ours, a time when the dream of the golden age had pretty much evaporated and the global economic crisis was causing people a great deal of concern. We experience this capitalistic crisis today in a similar way. But that's just one example of how wonderfully Brecht's works fit in with our lives, even -- especially -- today.

As a student Bertolt Brecht told his crush at the time that he would one day come "just after Goethe." Was he boasting just a bit?

Definitely not. Good old BB's prophesy was actually quite accurate. He is probably the only truly world-famous German-language poet and playwright. We realized that yet again while putting together the program for this year's anniversary celebration. There are performances in Johannesburg and Cape Town, in Beijing and Shanghai, in Tokyo, Mexico City, New York and probably even on the North Pole.

He's the only German playwright whose works are really performed in the whole world. He's far beyond Goethe. He can only be compared with Molière, Shakespeare, Euripides and Goldoni.

The majority of Germans haven't read or seen a work by Brecht since they were in school, according to a study conducted by the Society for Experiential Social Research. Only 2 percent of Germans read Brecht seriously today. Do these statistics concern you?

On the contrary! I find these numbers quite positive. We just have to free ourselves from the belief that art is something for the masses. It never was, actually, and that's not a bad thing at all. However, I consider a sign of great success when I hear that Brecht is one of the most frequently performed playwrights and "The Threepenny Opera" is one of the most well-known plays in the world.

What can bring young people closer to Brecht?

There's always the danger that bad teachers and bad curriculum at school draw students away from Brecht. The compulsivity of school, having to memorize art -- I lived through these painful experiences myself. But Brecht is not alone. It took a long time before I could read Goethe, Schiller and Thomas Mann impartially again.

Since there will always be good teachers and bad teachers, we as artists should not underestimate our own role in educating. School classes often come to see the Berliner Ensemble -- and they all come back again. It's very important to us to give young people the opportunity to talk with the actors, the director and the dramatic advisor about what they saw. Art is -- next to love -- probably the most beautiful experience that people can have.

We don't want to take this experience away from anyone and that's why we have to be especially careful when young people first have contact with art.

How is the Berliner Ensemble honoring its founder on the 50th anniversary of his death?

We've invited a whole series of international guest performers to Berlin. We weren't able to get some of them because Brecht is often performed illegally. In South Africa, for example, many ensembles don't have any contracts or rights, so we are not able to invite them. But we have many nice performances -- in addition to numerous talks and discussions -- from France, Italy, Croatia and Japan.

There is also a film program going on throughout the festival (until Sept. 3), with Brecht film adaptations and documentaries. It's important to us to show that Brecht was also an entertainer. "Tiger Lillies," the Kessler twins, Milva -- they all take care of the lighter muse.

What I particularly like, though, are the installations on Brecht Square -- our larger-than-life, moving, Brecht-reciting marionette, for example, and the "fluttering pictures." These are transparent photos of Brecht hanging in all the trees like Tibeten prayer flags. People can experience him there in a very physical way.

What advice would you give young directors who want to try their hand at Brecht?

I can only say, stay true to the script. Don't just look for your personal expression. Twenty-year-olds who can somehow articulate themselves immediately start to think they're big stars. But two years later most of them have already disappeared from the stage.

Instead, you have to serve the theater, pursue enlightenment and demonstrate solidarity with the people. Brecht is an outstanding lesson on the theater as a moral institution. I have nothing against a young director taking on "Galileo," "Courage," or "Sezuan" -- but I can't get a handle on the so-called mutilation of the German classics.

Do you have a quote from Brecht or a particular character that is particularly important to you?

I don't have a collection of quotes in my head. Instead, I tend to fall in love with the wonderful characters that Brecht invented, especially the marvelous women -- whether it's Grusche from "The Caucasian Chalk Circle," Mother Courage of course, or Saint Joan of the stockyards.

They are what continually fascinates me; they're what I dream of and what brings me to tears. In my opinion, Brecht created some of the most beautiful female characters in the history of German theater.