Round Heads and Pointed Heads
Round Heads and Pointed Heads | |
---|---|
Written by | Bertolt Brecht |
Date premiered | 4 November 1936 |
Original language | German |
Genre | Epic parable |
Round Heads and Pointed Heads (
History
At the suggestion of
After another re-write in light of its première in 1936, the play was published in German in 1938.[9] Brecht did not return to the play after that date,[10] though he did include it in his collected works of 1955.
Productions
After going into exile from Nazi Germany in 1933, Brecht sent the play to the Soviet playwright Sergei Tretyakov and offered it to theatres in Paris, London, New York, and Prague.[8] Erwin Piscator considered directing the play in Moscow several times during 1935-36.[8] Fears of censorship had prevented a planned production in Copenhagen in 1934 under the direction of Per Knutzon.[8]
The play finally received its première in a Danish-language production there two years later, which Ruth Berlau instigated.[11] It opened on 4 November 1936 at the Riddersalen Theatre (a 220-seat venue), under the direction of Knutzon.[3] Niels Bing played the Landlord, Lulu Ziegler (Knutzon's wife) played Nanna Callas, while Isbella was played by Astrid Schmahl.[3] Svend Johansen designed the sets, based on ideas by the American designer Mordecai Gorelik.[10] The critical response was mixed. Brecht was not upset by this — he remarked some years later that he had seen some people crying at the same scene that others were laughing at, "And I was satisfied with both."[12] Brecht thought it was "one of his best productions" so far, while it provoked a storm of protest from local fascists.[10] The production ran for 21 performances.[10]
The play received its German première in 1948 in Dresden.[13] Berlin saw productions of it in the East in November 1983 at the Deutsches Theater directed by Alexander Lang and a year and a half later in the West at Theatermanufaktur. Manfred Karge directed a production in 1993 at the Akademietheater in Vienna.[13] Brecht's own company, the Berliner Ensemble, staged the play in 1998.[13]
The first US production was directed by Andy Doe in California in 1971, with music for 2 songs by Hanns Eisler and the rest by Lucy Coolidge. Under the title The Roundheads and the Pointeheads or The Rich Work Powerfully Well Together (published by The Risley Review of Reviews), Leonard Lehrman translated (with Gesa Valk), adapted (with Bill Castleman) and staged the first US production with all 14 of Eisler's songs (plus incidental music by Lehrman) in the original orchestrations in November 1973 at Cornell. In 1998, for the Hanns Eisler Centennial, Lehrman presented a concert version with piano and 6 singers of just the songs with narration, at West Park Church in Manhattan. This was in conformance with a note Brecht had written regarding the possibility of presenting the piece with just 6 singers. Eric Bentley, who was present, remarked that perhaps this was the best way to present the play, as the music is its strongest element.
In the summer of 1981, coached by Bill Castleman, students presented song excerpts translated by Lehrman at the Aspen Festival under the direction of Martha Schlamme.
An
In popular culture
- The "Auto Erotic Assimilation" episode of the animated science fiction TV series Rick and Morty, first broadcast on the Adult Swim programming block of Cartoon Network on August 9, 2015, features a war between two races of aliens who look exactly alike, except that one has flat nipples with concentric rings while the other has cone-shaped nipples.
References
Notes
- U.S.S.R. in 1937. see Willett (1959, p.41). Margarete Steffinis named "Mitarbeiter" by Brecht in his Collected Works (1955). See Willett (1967, 42-43) and Thomson and Sacks (1994, 190).
- ^ Brecht (2001, 1).
- ^ a b c Willett (1967, 42-43).
- ^ Brecht describes the play in this way in his essay "On the Use of Music in an Epic Theatre." See Brecht (1964, 89).
- ^ Brecht (1964, 103).
- ^ Willett (1967, 42-43) and Kuhn and Willett (2001, viii).
- ^ Brecht writing in 1936 in the Copenhagen theatre journal Rundhoder og Spidshoder. See Kuhn and Willett (2001, ix, 304).
- ^ a b c d e Kuhn and Willett (2001, ix).
- ^ Kuhn and Willett (2001, x). Earlier versions of the play had already been published in Russian and English (published as Round Heads, Peak Heads: or, Rich and Rich Make Good Company, trans. N. Goold Verschoyle, in International Literature, 5 May 1937).
- ^ a b c d Kuhn and Willett (2001, x).
- ^ Thomson and Sacks (1994, 32).
- ^ Ewen (1967), citing Brecht's "Anmerkung zu Rundköpfe..." in Stücke VI (1957-1967).
- ^ a b c Kuhn and Willett (2001, xii).
- New York Times(April 14, 1985)
- ^ "Uncivil Wars" at Peak Performances
Bibliography
- ISBN 0-8090-3100-0.
- Brecht, Bertolt. 2001 Round Heads and Pointed Heads. In Kuhn and Willett (2001, 1-114).
- Ewen, Frederic. 1967. Bertolt Brecht: His Life, His Art and His Times. London: Calder. ISBN 0-7145-0120-4.
- Kuhn, Tom, and John Willett, eds. 2001. Collected Plays: Four. By Bertolt Brecht. Bertolt Brecht: Plays, Poetry, Prose Ser. London: Methuen. ISBN 0-413-70470-X.
- Thomson, Peter and Glendyr Sacks, eds. 1994. The Cambridge Companion to Brecht. Cambridge Companions to Literature Ser. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-41446-6.
- Willett, John. 1959. The Theatre of Bertolt Brecht: A study from Eight Aspects. Second ed.page 41 on Google Books
- ISBN 0-413-34360-X.
External links
- audio snippets of songs from Breitkopf & Härtel website