Word: bentley
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...Eric Bentley, at the University for the year while on leave from Columbia, where he is Brander Matthews Professor of Dramatic Literature, is a forty-four year old Englishman whose name is intertwined with that of Bertolt Brecht. Through his translations, and explanations of the complex Brechtian theories of epic drama, he has been chiefly responsible for the German playwright's recent surge of popularity. An anthologizer, translator, producer, and director, Bentley today looms as one of the most respected and acute commentators on the theatrical scene...
...might expect, he is gratified by the new interest in Brecht. Bentley had foreseen the re-examination of epic theater techniques in 1955, and is extremely pleased when on campus after campus he is questioned incessantly on Brecht's theatrical contributions. "People might think that a playwright is not popular until he is successful on Broadway," he observes, "but the student, interest, after all, reflects a real popularity. And when you think about it, Ibsen never was successful on Broadway; nor Strindberg; nor many truly great authors...
...interest" is manifested at the University in the forthcoming production of Brecht's Caucasian Chalk Circle at Loeb. Bentley, who is himself taking an active interest in the production, is enthusiastic over the theater's "possibilities." He considers the play "the final statement of Brecht's development," in that it is "the most poetic in a non-cynical way; the most mellow; and, in a way not associated with Brecht, the most delicate. In other words, it is Brecht saying the same things, but with less savagery...
...Bentley and a number of others, one of the most significant aspects of Brecht's emergence is the coolness with which he has been received in the Soviet Union. To the best of Bentley's knowledge, the only Soviet production of this outspoken socialist's work, an unsuccessful Threepenny Opcra, was put on in the early 1930's. Recently, the Berliner Ensemble (the East German group founded by Brecht and now headed by his wife), toured the U.S.S.R. encountering an audience and press that was polite but never enthusiastic...
...Bentley explains this apparent paradox by nothing that Brecht's work is essentially by, of, and for the bourgeoisie. That he was above all a rebel of the middle class, who turned his brilliant bitterness on the culture generated by that class. "Brecht assumed capitalism within the theater," Bentley points out. "He assumed that it permeated the walls, the seats, and everyone in the audience. But people in the Soviet Union cannot be aware of the values and standards of capitalist culture. So to a large extent Brecht is meaningless to them...