Baal

Baal is a play by Bertolt Brecht (1898-1956)[1].

The original text

The first version was written in 1918 when Brecht was a student at Munich University, in reaction to Der Einsame ("The Loner"), an expressionist play by Hanns Johst ()[], and tells the story of a drunken, ruthless, womanizing poet and singer, a desperate antihero in the tradition of Villon and Rimbaud

Written in a form of poetic prose, with four songs and a "Hymn of Baal the Great", the music composed by Brecht himself.

The first theatrical performance only took place in 1923, opening on 8 December at the Altes Theater in Leipzig.

In 1926 Brecht wrote a revised version (with Elisabeth Hauptmann) for a brief production at Max Reinhardt's Deutsches Theater in Berlin, performed by the Junge Bühne and directed by Brecht and Oskar Homolka.

The text was first published in Potsdam by Gustav Kiepenheuer Verlag in 1922.

Translations and adaptations

Translated into Afrikaans from the German by Arnold Blumer. Adapted by Arnold Blumer and Chris Vorster.

Performance history in South Africa

1998: Presented in Afrikaans by the University of Stellenbosch Drama Department in the H.B. Thom Theatre in October. Directed by Chris Vorster, starring Abduragman Adams, Keith Bain, Nina Swart, Ilse Oppelt, and others. Stage manager Liezl Kritzinger, Production manager Leopold Senekal.

Sources

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baal_(play)

Programme notes for 1998 production.

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