Brecht and Asia
Copyright: Cao Fei China Tracy_RMB City_Courtesy of Vitamin Creative Space
What happens to nice guys in this world? Bertolt Brecht began dealing with this question in the 1920s in a parable entitled “The Good Person of Szechuan.” The author completed the final version in exile in Scandinavia during World War II.
Brecht’s play is set in the Chinese province of Szechuan, which makes it just that much more suited to an adaptation by a practitioner strongly influenced by Asian theater. Director, curator and performance theorist Ong Keng Sen has headed the “TheatreWorks“ theater group in Singapore since 1985. In 2005, he staged Brecht’s “The Caucasian Chalk Circle” at Vienna’s Schauspielhaus. For Linz09, he’s scrutinized the Chinese roots of “The Good Person of Szechuan.” The outcome of this encounter is an evening of theater at the nexus of Brechtian drama, reinterpretation and performance.The Good Person of Szechuan
Premiere: September 26, 2009, 7:30 PM
Landestheater Linz (Promenade 39, 4020 Linz)
Additional performances through January 2010. Details
For tickets, log on to www.landestheater-linz.at or call 0800-218000
Details at www.linz09.at/der-gute-mensch-von-sezuan
