Bertolt Brecht Biography

Bertolt Brecht, born as Eugen Berthold Friedrich Brecht, was a German poet, playwright and theatre practitioner. He was a visionary who departed from the accepted conventional norms of illusion in theatrical production and tried new approaches to develop a better understanding of drama. He insisted that the audience view the stage and actors from a realistic and rational perspective and not as the conventional “make-believe” world. He was just 16 when the World War I started – he became increasingly disillusioned with the society and started moving towards Marxism and Dadaism. Even though he had studied medicine in university, he developed a profound interest in literature. He wrote his first play ‘Baal’ in 1918 which was theatrically produced in 1923. His meeting with the novelist and playwright Lion Feuchtwanger in 1919 proved to be a turning point in his career. He worked with him on an adaptation of Christopher Marlowe’s play Edward II, which greatly inspired his theatrical and dramaturgical development. He was a part of Erwin Piscator’s first company which was dedicated to the development of its "epic, political, confrontational, documentary theatre." He also collaborated with Kurt Weill and was influenced by Chinese theatre. He, along with his wife, founded the theatre company ‘Berliner Ensemble’ during the post war years.