Baal
Baal is a play by Bertolt Brecht (1898-1956)[1].
Contents
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 German play by Hanns Johst (1890-1978). [2], dramatizing the life of playwright Christian Dietrich Grabbe (1801-1836)[3]. Brecht's play 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)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hanns_Johst
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christian_Dietrich_Grabbe
Programme notes for 1998 production.
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