American Views Abroad


Sunday, February 25, 2007
 
Happy End - Eine Magazingeschichte - Bertholt Brecht / Kurt Weill

On March 1st-3rd, 8th+9th, and 14th-17th at the St. Johanniskirche in Altona you have the chance of seeing a presentation of "Happy End - Eine Magazingeschichte" by the Hamburg theater combo Elfen im Park. Price of admission: a donation - "pay as much as you can."

The piece is credited to Dorothy Lane, with compositions by Kurt Weill, and texts by Bertholt Brecht. It was the immediate sequel to the Three Penny Opera (Dreigroschenoper), but was a flop at the time of its first performance in 1929:

"The show's 1929 premiere was an unequivocal disaster: star Helene Weigel departed from Hauptmann's unfinished book to read from the Communist Manifesto, the press couldn't tell if the ad-libbing was scripted or not (it was, after all, a Brecht and Weill piece), and ripped the show to shreds in the papers. It closed in a week, and has only received a few revivals since then."
Source: Broadway World

We now know Dorothy Lane to be Elisabeth Hauptmann, at that time one of Brecht's assistants, and loves. When Brecht married she refused to finish the piece, so Brecht finally did, but no one wanted to have their name attached to it - hence the pseudonym. So much for the history.

I saw the show last night. The story is simple: in the Chicago underworld of the 1920's a girl in the Salvation Army tries to save the soul of Billy Cracker, a notorious gangster. Throughout the performance, we are accompanied by "Bertholt Brecht" himself, in leather tie and jacket, looking very much as he did in that famous series of photographs, sitting at an antique typewriter stage left, writing down notes on a sheaf of papers. Occasionally we become aware of him as he converses with the players on stage. This added a necessary dimension to a story which itself does not go beyond light entertainment.

The performances were convincing, lovingly done, and there was much attention to detail. The characters of Billy Cracker (Bo Lander) and Lilian Holiday (Saskia Junggeburth) were convincingly played, as were the rest of the characters. I loved the stern, puritanical looks on the faces of the Salvation Army women. The set was very sparse, hardly more than a platform and a garderobe. In this context much of the mood was set by the authentic costumes, Billy Cracker standing out especially in pin striped suit and patent leather shoes.

The real prize was the music, performed by the Dreipfennigsorchester (directed by Axel D. Wolf) to the right of the stage, titles including "Das Bilbao Lied," "Matrosen Tango," and "Surabaya Johnny." From what I've read, it's rare to hear these performed in one place and in their original context. So for that reason alone, if you like Brecht & Weill, you don't want to miss this.

Musical Zentrale has further information (in German) about the piece and performance.

Comments:
Sounds interesting.
I hope you think I correctly applied the term "verfremdungseffekt" to your work.
 
Could be. I wrote some things and they came out so strange, there had to be some kind of Verfremdung involved.
 
Post a Comment


Disclaimer: American Views Abroad is not responsible for offsite content. All links in blog entires are external offsite links, unless otherwise indicated.