can we just talk about how awful this play is for a second? baal, the play by bertolt brecht, is based on a wretched poet that is an outright misogynist -er, i mean a seducer of women - that rejects bourgeois society. granted brecht wrote this play as a twenty year old student in 1918. but is it any excuse for an ensemble, nearly a century later, to reenact this play without atleast making some alterations to update it for a contemporary audience?
this isn't one of brecht's more refined pieces of writing.
and, so, when i happened to make the mistake of going to see this at my local theater ensemble group's playhouse (which will remain nameless so as to avoid undue embarrassment on their behalf), i was utterly horrified. the actor portraying baal, overplayed his role to the point of nausea. he sputtered his sentences, with dribbles of spit flying across the room, and even had the audacity to look me square in the eye and call me a "bitch". let me tell you mr. overcompensation, i didn't plan on seeing your penis twice that night but i can understand your desire to overplay your role to make up for what you lacked below.
the women in this play were weak, submissive, stereotypical, raped versions of the women who were a part of the first wave feminist movement. ironically, brecht wrote this play in the same year that marie stopes published "married love", the first book that reflected on a woman's sexual desire. don't get me wrong, stopes had her own issues involving eugenics claiming that those "unfit" for parenthood should be forced into sterilization. but, at the very least, she founded marie stopes international as a support group for sexual health advocacy.
back to brecht. brecht's attempt to provoke self-reflection in order to recognize injustice so that the audience can have an epiphany and change the world is a misguided rationalization that allows him to exploit gender stereotypes in baal. darling brecht, your concept of "epic theater" is great in theory, but not quite adequate on the stage here in los angeles. we can, of course, blame it on an outdated script or in the way the actors played their roles...but we shouldn't allow it to become an excuse to not explore postmodern options of using a female as the lead or investigating other subversive techniques.
