Man Equals Man: And the Elephant Calf

by Bertolt Brecht, John Willett (Editor), Ralph Manheim (Editor)

Set in British colonial India, this groundbreaking play shows a man being disassembled and reconstructed into a soldier. Reissue.

Genres: Theatre, German Literature, Plays, Germany, 20th Century, Drama

160 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1926

About the author

Eugen Berthold Friedrich Brecht was a German poet, playwright, and theatre director. A seminal theatre practitioner of the twentieth century, Brecht made equally significant contributions to dramaturgy and theatrical production, the latter particularly through the seismic impact of the tours undertaken by the Berliner Ensemble—the post-war theatre company operated by Brecht and his wife and long-time collaborator, the actress Helene Weigel—with its internationally acclaimed productions.

From his late twenties Brecht remained a life-long committed Marxist who, in developing the combined theory and practice of his 'epic theatre', synthesized and extended the experiments of Piscator and Meyerhold to explore the theatre as a forum for political ideas and the creation of a critical aesthetics of dialectical materialism. Brecht's modernist concern with drama-as-a-medium led to his refinement of the 'epic form' of the drama (which constitutes that medium's rendering of 'autonomization' or the 'non-organic work of art'—related in kind to the strategy of divergent chapters in Joyce's novel Ulysses, to Eisenstein's evolution of a constructivist 'montage' in the cinema, and to Picasso's introduction of cubist 'collage' in the visual arts). In contrast to many other avant-garde approaches, however, Brecht had no desire to destroy art as an institution; rather, he hoped to 're-function' the apparatus of theatrical production to a new social use. In this regard he was a vital participant in the aesthetic debates of his era—particularly over the 'high art/popular culture' dichotomy—vying with the likes of Adorno, Lukács, Bloch, and developing a close friendship with Benjamin. Brechtian theatre articulated popular themes and forms with avant-garde formal experimentation to create a modernist realism that stood in sharp contrast both to its psychological and socialist varieties. "Brecht's work is the most important and original in European drama since Ibsen and Strindberg," Raymond Williams argues, while Peter Bürger insists that he is "the most important materialist writer of our time."

As Jameson among others has stressed, "Brecht is also ‘Brecht’"—collective and collaborative working methods were inherent to his approach. This 'Brecht' was a collective subject that "certainly seemed to have a distinctive style (the one we now call 'Brechtian') but was no longer personal in the bourgeois or individualistic sense." During the course of his career, Brecht sustained many long-lasting creative relationships with other writers, composers, scenographers, directors, dramaturgs and actors; the list includes: Elisabeth Hauptmann, Margarete Steffin, Ruth Berlau, Slatan Dudow, Kurt Weill, Hanns Eisler, Paul Dessau, Caspar Neher, Teo Otto, Karl von Appen, Ernst Busch, Lotte Lenya, Peter Lorre, Therese Giehse, Angelika Hurwicz, and Helene Weigel herself. This is "theatre as collective experiment [...] as something radically different from theatre as expression or as experience."

There are few areas of modern theatrical culture that have not felt the impact or influence of Brecht's ideas and practices; dramatists and directors in whom one may trace a clear Brechtian legacy include: Dario Fo, Augusto Boal, Joan Littlewood, Peter Brook, Peter Weiss, Heiner Müller, Pina Bausch, Tony Kushner and Caryl Churchill. In addition to the theatre, Brechtian theories and techniques have exerted considerable sway over certain strands of film theory and cinematic practice; Brecht's influence may be detected in the films of Joseph Losey, Jean-Luc Godard, Lindsay Anderson, Rainer Werner Fassbinder, Nagisa Oshima, Ritwik Ghatak, Lars von Trier, Jan Bucquoy and Hal Hartley.

During the war years, Brecht became a prominent writer of the Exilliteratur. He expressed his opposition to the National Socialist and Fascist movements in his most famous plays.

Reviews

[Jonfaith · Rating 2 out of 5]

Brecht may have wished to depict the crushing nature of military discipline, the degradation of the colonial enterprise. The result may have fell short. I’m having issues being polite here as I think the world of Brecht. Using a Kipling inspired argot, an absurdist musical ensues but one without an underlying conviction.

The occupying army needs an alibi, insert a lovable Mick as fall guy. Slowly across stanzas he is recreated, formed as a brutal but loyal solider. The result as well as the entire play lacked all satisfaction.

[David Menčik · Rating 5 out of 5]

Man Equals Man is a type of literary work that I have rarely read in my life. It is a comedy, yet set in a very serious war situation. I loved the switch of identites idea as I have published a Philosophy scientific paper on a thought experiment about the social identity.

A man Equals man, set in a war situation it is not relevant who is operating a machine gun, it is all about how they are doing it.

Good book, not a famous Brecht work but a funny yet serious work.

[Livan Garcia · Rating 5 out of 5]

Would love to make a film adaptation of this but it’s set in post-colonial Mali with French troops fighting ISIS and Dieudonné stars as Gal Gay. You could even parody some scenes out of Beau Travail, with Denis Lavant playing Bloody Five (secretly gay and not so much castrating himself for his excess mandom but for his perceived ‘lack’ of it)! Give me funding now.

[Lincoln Hall · Rating 4 out of 5]

Hmmm.

Kinda speeded through the second half of this to have it read in time for class, the begining was a bit of a drag as it takes much too long to set everything up but by the time we actually get to the shenanigans of swapping gay for jip it’s comical til it’s terrifying.

I love a good joke seen til it’s brutal end I just kinda wish that was the mid point of the play instead of the end? Like it works but I just want more!

[Brat Virdžinije Vulf · Rating 5 out of 5]

Kafkijanski mračno, sa kamijevskim apsurdom, ali kroz satiru... Rat je zlo ljudi koji ne umiju da shvate da je svaki čovjek različit i da ga to čini čovjekom, a ne to što su svi ljudi isti... Možemo malo valjda i svojom glavom da mislimo, i da kažemo: NE ratu! Međutim, na žalost možemo i da kažemo: jedan ko' nijedan, ne znam da kažem NE...

[Andrew Noselli · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was absurdist literature after Dada and a precursor to the Marx brothers.

[Andrew Corsini · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great colonial set Brechtian play functions as an anti-Kipling. Also shades of Full Metal Jacket in transformation of Galy Gay

[Ashley Y · Rating 2 out of 5]

What did I just read? For school…

[αλεξα · Rating 5 out of 5]

aktuelno

[Rhys · Rating 3 out of 5]

Man Equals Man is one of Brecht's early plays. It's a wild farce set in a Kiplingesque India in which the innocent porter Galy Gay is kidnapped by three British soldiers and brainwashed into believing he is their missing comrade. Except that Galy Gay isn't quite so innocent and the brainwashing is only possible because of Galy Gay's own nature. Quite simply he is unable to say "no" to anyone.

The action moves quickly. There is a terrible sergeant major by the name of Bloody Five who is feared by all until he proves that he is even more manly than anyone else by shooting off his manhood. There is the Widow Begbick, who runs the mobile canteen that provides alcohol to the soldiers. She also happens to be a part time prostitute.

This colourful cast perform a series of actions that verge on the hysterically bizarre. But the ultimate point of the play is to suggest that our identities aren't quite as fixed as we assume and that a man can be dismantled and reassembled into something new.

This book also contains a secondary related work, The Elephant Calf, which was once a part of the main play, but which Brecht later separated out as a sketch to be performed in the foyer of the theatre. In this even more bizarre farce, Galy Gay has been reborn as the calf of the unreal elephant that he was tricked into attempting to sell in Man Equals Man. The so-called fourth wall is completed demolished in this play.

There are songs and poems galore in Man Equals Man and although it's an early work it is pure Brecht and a disturbing delight.

[Sharon · Rating 2 out of 5]

Part of a course on Brecht, junior year at Cal. I don't recall much about it, but I wrote a paper on the role of women in this play.

[Neha Singh]

Man Equals Man

[Ehsan Ghiasi · Rating 5 out of 5]

Man Equals Man !!!

[Iqra Tasmiae]

"A Man's a Man" mentioned in introduction to William Benjamin's "Understanding Brecht".