در جنگل شهر، صدای طبل در شب، بعل

by Bertolt Brecht, محمود حسینی‌زاد (Translator)

Contains the plays
* Baal
* Im Dickicht der Städte
* Trommeln in der Nacht

Genres: Plays

379 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1987

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

[Ali · Rating 4 out of 5]

در جنگل شهر از همان خط اول با تعلیق دیوانه کننده‌ای شروع میشه و تا انتهای پرده دوم نمایشنامه با ورق زدن هر صفحه از کتاب، فقط سوالات بیشتری هست به ذهن خواننده میرسه. جواب بعضی از این سوالات رو میشه تا نیمه دوم نمایشنامه حدس زد ولی نویسنده، جواب اصلی که خواننده به دنبال فهمیدنش هست رو دقیقا تو آخرین صفحات کتاب آورده.

در مقایسه با بقیه آثار برشت، نمایشنامه در جنگل شهر بیشترین تعلیق رو داشت. نویسنده تو این اثرش هم، از کنایه زدن به نظام سرمایه داری دست برنداشته بود و آنتاگونیست داستان به طرز خنده داری، از شهر شیکاگو آمده بود تا به هر نحوی که شده، زخم زبانش را به نظام سرمایه داری که مولود اقتصاددان های دانشگاه شیکاگو هست، زده باشه.

[Abi Sangarab · Rating 4 out of 5]

اين كتاب سراسر تحقير سرمايه داري، خورده بورژوازي، جهل و روشنفكر نماهاي فاسد هست، شايد به شكلي انتقام برشت از جامعه سطحي زمان خودش هست، قهرمان داستان فردي عياش و لاابالي تصوير شده كه وظيفه تحقير زنان سطحي، منتقدين هنري، سرمايه داري و هر چيز ساختگي رو داره، و در عين عياشي لحظه اي تسليم نميشه، بينهايت اثر تميزي هست، ايكاش اونقدر آلمانيم خوب بود كه به زبان اصلي ميخوندم

[Michael · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a collection of three of Bertolt Brecht’s earliest plays, in the original German. I found them relatively easy to follow in German although I admit I looked up plot summaries for them on the Internet.
The most interesting thing about “Baal” to me is his name. Baal is the name of a Sumerian god whose name appears in the Bible as a demon or code for the Devil (it’s related to the origin of “Beelzebub”).Thus, as I read the play, I imagined the part of Baal being played by a large, muscular, horned guy with skin that varied from dark yellow to bright red. I’m not certain that’s the image Brecht meant to evoke. The play is actually a parody of Bohemian artists who claim to be beyond morals and live to satisfy momentary desires, rather than more complex human needs. Baal ends up betraying and killing his lovers and friends, and on his own, running from just retribution.
“Drums in the Night” is a more typical postwar Expressionist play, about a young woman whose fiancé has been lost in the war, and who is courted by an arms merchant at home. Her parents, of course, want her to marry the rich man, and rush her to do so when the fiancé reappears after three years in a prison camp. She faces the dilemma of her decision as Berlin erupts in revolutionary violence. Various characters represent elements of society and their hardships or compromises resulting from the lost war.

Im Dickicht der Städte (In the Jungle of Cities) is a much weirder and wilder ride than the other two. Set in a Chicago Brecht only knew about from movies and pulp fiction, it involves the fight of two “boxers” who come to identify themselves through their struggle. At the outset, the first “boxer” is a lumber-yard owner with criminal connections, and the other is an educated clerk in a bookstore. Shlink, the lumberman comes into the store and asks for an opinion on a book, which Garga, the clerk, refuses to give, even when offered money. This sets Shlink into a rage and results in Garga losing his job. At each turn, however, Garga outsmarts Shlink but suffers increasingly worse consequences until the end, when he realizes that the fight itself is meaningless. By this time his whole family is in shambles and the lumberyard has been burnt to the ground. It seems to be a statement about the bleak prospects and fostering of self-destructive hatreds in Germany after the First World War, and it was, in fact protested by the Nazis on its release (they’d protest anything, so it’s not a major accomplishment). I think this was my favorite of the three, but I’d have to see them in performance to say for sure.

[Mahan Shishechi · Rating 3 out of 5]

بعل عالی بود، در جنگل شهر هم جالب بود...

[Alba Valls · Rating 3 out of 5]

Bueno, un llibre rarot de Brecht. Sincerament m'ha semblat un llibre random que parla tota l'estona del capitalisme, de la prostitució i de mogudes rares. Però bueno, Brecht, com a bon pensador i persona traumatitzada per les guerres, ja buscava una mica aquest distanciament, pel que està OK. Les frases lapidàries que es diuen entre ells m'han semblat prou divertides. En Ganga és un senyor odiós, tot i que sigui el protagonista.

[Mike · Rating 3 out of 5]

Die Stücke muss man eher sehen, denke ich

[Mahsa Bigverdi · Rating 4 out of 5]

نمایشنامه‌های موردعلاقه‌م به ترتیب: در جنگل شهر، بعل و در آخر صدای طبل در شب.

[Kelly Hernandez · Rating 3 out of 5]

Efecto mariposa básicamente

[Jay · Rating 5 out of 5]

Well, having read nothing of Brecht's before, it's probably unfair to judge him based on three pieces he himself found only kind of palatable. Baal is interesting, very strange. Some scenes are no longer impressive although I'm sure they would have been when he wrote it. Still, his death at the end. so odd.
Trommel in der Nacht is like... kind of difficult to describe. You kind of don't care at all about anyone. They're all kind of crummy people, and that soldier, I'm sure you could make him quite pathetic, but still, he's so annoying.
in Dickicht der stadte is so utterly bizarre, it's probably supposed to be avant garde or whatever, but my god it is hard to follow. Why the hell does Schlink give up his business to George? What is Marie's fucking problem? Who the hell is Schlink anyway? Ok, I'm still reading it, maybe it'll become clear by the end, but as of right now, pretty crazy man. Pretty damned crazy.

[Maa jed · Rating 4 out of 5]

کمتر اتفاق می افته که از هیچ جهتی با قهرمان داستان همذات پنداری نداشته باشی و بعل یکی از همین شخصیتهاست که در عین لذتی که از داستان بردم هیچ وجه اشتراکی پیدا نمیکنی با کسی که همه جوره عوارض زندگی مدرن را تمام و کمال به نمایش میذاره .....................ا
.....................
واما در جنگل شهر

[Mahmoud elsaeed · Rating 5 out of 5]

برخت من الأدباء الشكليين

مهتم جداً , بالتغريب ..
بتصدير مشاهد و رؤيا و شخصبات .. غير واقعية , و مسرحيّة جداً ..
يتعامل مع الا وعي بقوة مدمرة

خلي بالك و انت بتقراله :)

[Sharon · Rating 2 out of 5]

This play is referenced in one of my essays, but I don't remember anything about it.

[Theresia · Rating 2 out of 5]

Baal = super, Dickicht = unerträglich.