Skip to main content
Advertise Buy the paper Contact us Shop Subscribe Support us
The body language of fascism
JAN WOOLF recommends an exhibition of Brecht’s collages whose message is driven home by actors recreating scenes from his unfinished plays

Brecht — Fragments
Raven Row, London

 

IF you manage it right, there’s a treat in store at Raven Row, London E1.   

Twice a day theatre performances accompany an exhibition of Bertolt Brecht’s archive in an hour-and-a-half of terrific theatre, as world-class actors lead you through the rooms for dramatic fragments of Brecht’s unfinished plays from 1920s Berlin. 

As vividly costumed as anything from the Weimar Republic — and a broken fourth wall — these sketches are as relevant now as when Brecht wrote them. They cover class struggle, poverty, accumulative capitalism, religion and war, and crucially how they all relate to one another.  

Support the Morning Star
You have reached the free limit.
Subscribe to continue reading.
More from this author
Best of 2024 / 3 January 2025
3 January 2025
A landmark work of gay ethnography, an avant-garde fusion of folk and modernity, and a chance comment in a great interview
Theatre review / 29 November 2024
29 November 2024
ANGUS REID applauds the inventive stagecraft with which the Lyceum serve up Stevenson’s classic, but misses the deeper themes
Gig Review / 6 October 2024
6 October 2024
ANGUS REID time-travels back to times when Gay Liberation was radical and allied seamlessly to an anti-racist, anti-establishment movement
Interview / 15 March 2024
15 March 2024
ANGUS REID speaks to historian Siphokazi Magadla about the women who fought apartheid and their impact on South African society
Similar stories
Culture / 12 December 2024
12 December 2024
The playwright and artist reflects on the ways in which reviewing can nourish the creative act
Book Review / 3 December 2024
3 December 2024
MEIC BIRTWHISTLE speaks to David Constantine about the fascination he shares with Brecht for the material exactness of Greek poetry
Exhibition Review / 23 August 2024
23 August 2024
JAN WOOLF applauds art that has not only documented the anti-war and anti-capitalist movement but been an integral part of it 
Comedy Review / 24 May 2024
24 May 2024
HENRY BELL relishes an evening of radical politics, surreal comedy and expert musicianship