\ V NUNC COCNOSCO EX PARTE TRENT UNIVERSITY LIBRARY Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2019 with funding from Kahle/Austin Foundation https://archive.org/details/messingkaufdialoOOOObrec The Messingkauf Dialogues BERTOLT BRECHT The Messingkauf Dialogues Translated by John Willett METHUEN & CO LTD II NEW FETTER LANE • LONDON EC4 First published in Great Britain in 196$ Original work published under the title DIALOGE AUS DEM MESSINGKAUF © Suhrkamp Verlag Frankfurt am Main, 1963 This translation © Methuen & Co Ltd, 1963 Printed in Great Britain by W. &J. Mackay & Co Ltd, Chatham, Kent .ONULP Contents The First Night The theatre and real life. A man buys brass. The idea page n of the thaeter: how people behave in practice. Actor as dictator. Two kinds of loaf. FRAGMENTS FROM THE FIRST NIGHT Naturalism 21 Stanislavsky. Realism and naturalism. Identifying with the hero. Empathy 27 Theatre as magic. Gesture. The theatre of social comment. About Ignorance 30 Threats to the human race. Lessons of experience: Pavlov. What Interests the Philosopher about the Theatre 34 Entertainment and instruction. Marxism. The Philosopher's explanation of Marxism. Adapting the text. Artist as reporter. Art and the extraordinary. The Second Night The Philosopher’s Speech about Our Period page 42 The Actor’s Speech about How to Portray a Little Nazi 43 5 62852 CONTENTS FRAGMENTS FROM THE SECOND NIGHT Science page 44 Practical art. The angry scientist. Observation. Taking people for granted. The chain and its links. Labels. Removal of Illusion and Empathy 5i The fourth wall. Direct address. Behaviour is complex. Attitude to the text. The use of empathy. Shakespeare’s Theatre 57 An audience without illusions. The street scene. Elizabethan experiments. Relativity and character. Producing King Lear. History and topicality. Piscator’s Theatre 64 The Third Night FRAGMENTS FROM THE THIRD NIGHT page 68 The Augsburger’s Theatre Piscator and the Augsburger. The Augsburger’s influences. His actors. His attitude to his own rules. Fear and Misery. Folk art. Altering the text. Subdividing the play. And the performance. The A-effect 76 Alienation. The Actress plays a man. Surrealism. Death of the villain. Knowing the ending. Class and individual. Vitality. The Augsburger and the emotions. The Fourth Night The Playwright’s Speech about the Theatre of the page 84 Stage Designer Caspar Neher The Dramaturg’s Speech about Casting 87 6