Word: brecht
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...CLAUSTROPHOBIC nature of Brecht's vision is matched only by the dreariness of the vehicle he uses to convey it. The Tutor is, on the whole, remarkably innocent of such dramatic niceties as plot interest, character development and convincing dialogue. Granted, allegory is hardly the most subtle of theatrical form; still, the minimum requirement for any drama is that it keep its audience awake, and if The Tutor succeeds at all in this regard, the credit belongs mainly to the blaring, percussive music which intervenes between scenes. A relatively short play, The Tutor succeeds at all in this regard...
...FREEDOM IS TO man as water is to fish," declares one of the characters in Bertolt Brecht's The Tutor. In the play, freedom is metaphorically equal to sexual license, so when the lecherous tutor castrates himself, Brecht's message is clear; this misguided soul, in his anxiousness to retain his livelihood, has performed an unnatural act, just like the German intellectuals who kowtowed to Hitler. Lest we construe Brecht's meaning too narrowly, however, he reminds us, in a line emblazoned on the set, that his aim is "to illumine all our sorry state, not only that of Germany...
...Brecht's vision is a bleak one. Man, it seems, must plough a course between the Scylla of nature and the Charybdis of conformity to the powers that be. Allegorically speaking, the hapless tutor must renounce his sexual desires for good if he is to continue tutoring young ladies. But while his self-mutilation debars him permanently from natural enjoyment, it earns him only the temporary approbation of the authorities, leaving him ultimately at their mercy. At the end of the play, the tutor doffs his persona and steps forward to explain, for those who might have missed...
...Tutor. The Loeb seems to be continuing this year its tradition of presenting relatively unknown plays by relatively well-known playwrights. This fall's first production is the East Coast premiere of The Tutor by Bertolt Brecht, author of The Three-Penny Opera and Mother Courage. It's a satiric parable of the moral collapse of the educational system in Nazi Germany; the tutor of the title goes around/seducing all his female students, with predictably disastrous consequences. The director is Jurgen Flimm from the Thalia Theater in Hamburg, Germany, and the play itself is based on an 18th century work...
...brain tumor; in London. Trained as an actor, Daubeny found his stage career shattered when he lost his left arm at Salerno during World War II. He rebounded as a promoter-organizer, touring Europe, Asia and the U.S. to recruit troupes such as the Moscow Art Theater, Bertolt Brecht's Berliner Ensemble and the Martha Graham Dance Company for performances in England. In 1964 he founded the World Theater Season, which brought foreign companies to the Aldwych Theater (London home of the Royal Shakespeare Company) every spring for a decade. Two years ago Daubeny won a knighthood...