Brecht, Bertolt (Eugen Berthold Friedrich)

German dramatist and poet. He was one of the most influential figures in 20th-century theatre. A committed Marxist, he sought to develop an ‘epic theatre’ which aimed to destroy the ‘suspension of disbelief’ usual in the theatre and so encourage audiences to develop an active and critical attitude to a play's subject. He adapted John Gay's The Beggar's Opera as Die Dreigroschenoper/The Threepenny Opera (1928), set to music by Kurt Weill. Later plays include Mutter Courage und ihre Kinder/Mother Courage and her Children (194l), set during the Thirty Years' War, and Der kaukasische Kreidekreis/The Caucasian Chalk Circle (1945).

As an anti-Nazi, Brecht left Germany in 1933 for Scandinavia and the USA; he became an Austrian citizen after World War II. He established the Berliner Ensemble theatre group in East Germany in 1949, and in the same year published Kleines Organon für das Theater/Little Treatise on the Theatre, a concise expression of his theatrical philosophy. His other works include Leben des Galilei/The Life of Galileo (1938), Der gute Mensch von Setzuan/The Good Woman of Setzuan (1943), and Der aufhaltsame Aufstieg der Arturo Ui/The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui (1958).