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Baal (Smith/Manheim)

Full-Length Play, Drama  /  12w, 18m

Bertolt Brecht, Ralph Manheim, William Smith

The story charts the decline of a drunken and dissolute poet, Baal, an anti-hero who rejects the conventions and trappings of bourgeois society. This situation draws on the German Sturm und Drang tradition, which celebrates the cult of the genius living outside the conventions of society that would later destroy him.

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Baal (Smith/Manheim)

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  • Cast Size
    Cast Size
    12w, 18m
  • Audience
    Target Audience
    Adult, Senior, Teen (Age 14-18)

Details

Summary
Baal, a poet and singer, drunk, lazy, selfish and ruthless, seduces (among others) a disciple's seventeen-year-old mistress, who drowns herself. He mixes with tramps and drivers and sin's in a cheap nightclub. With his friend the composer Ekart he wanders through the country, drinking and fighting. Sophie, pregnant by him, follows them and likewise drowns herself. Baal seduces Ekart's mistress, then kills him. Hunted by the police and deserted by the woodcutters, he dies alone in a forest hut.
Performing Groups
  • Time Period Contemporary
  • Additional Features Play with Music
  • Cautions
    • Mild Adult Themes

Licensing & Materials

  • Minimum Fee: £70 per performance plus VAT when applicable.

Authors

Bertolt Brecht

Bertolt Brecht
Bertolt Brecht (1898-1956), playwright, poet and director, was born in Augsburg, Germany in February 1898. He established himself as a playwright during the 1920s and early 1930s with plays such as Baal, Man is Man, The Threepenny Opera and The Mother. In 1933, as Hitler came ...
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Author

Ralph Manheim

Author

William Smith

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