Plays: Two

by Bertolt Translated by John Willett Introduction by Hugh Rorrison Brecht

Contains the pieces

* Good person of Szechwan
* Mother Courage and her children
* Fear and misery of the Third Reich

Genres: Plays

325 pages, Paperback

Published January 1, 1987

Reviews

[Magdalena Kolodziej]

The play had very simple dialogue and a few stage directions, which I assumed was done to make it performable by anyone. The play perfectly pictured the difficulties of having Hitler as a leader and certainly proved that fear and misery weren't a good foundation for the Reich. The characters portrayed here were much aware of the consequences of phrasing something in a suspicious manner. The writer showed several levels of misery and fear, and in the process reflected on how easily it was for someone to get into a concentration camp. Brecht reflected on how few people supported the Nazis as a result of their fears and miseries.

[Gracie]

I watched The Good Person of Szechwan, the 2019 Brown University performance available on YouTube. Absolutely phenomenal performance and play! Great to experience in this roundabout way just how effective Brecht’s plays are with engaging the audience and awakening them, where other plays can’t, even with the simplest question, ‘why is it so hard to be good?’

[Kimron]

Reading plays every once in a while is fun, I hope I'll be able to see this live eventually too. Mother Courage explores a woman benefitting financially from war - I guess akin to the military industrial complex. But everyone is just trying to get on in this world, can I blame her?

[Zara Bahrami]

Another good & inspiring play by Brecht :) I watched it on stage in Tehran!