Page 144

 
Brecht Then and Now / Brecht damals und heute 
the means of production are in this sense given into the hands of 
"those who really make it," the theater loses its hierarchical
organ- 
izational structure, as many groups who broke away from the "sys- 
tem" have proven in the past. Perhaps it is the most "political"
can 
ever be. 
    It is because of all these ideas, formulated in his big theoretical 
works and so often misunderstood, misinterpreted, and underesti- 
mated, that I still take Brecht seriously today. His concern was to 
make a theater that asks questions; not just to entertain, but also to 
make the audience think, to make the audience actively part of it, 
and finally, to give it back to those who make it. His importance 
lies in his ideas: how to make theater and communicate with it. The 
questions he asked in his own plays, the unstated but implied 
answers, might not be so relevant today. But if we still want to 
perform Mother Courage or Puntila, we must ask ourselves the 
same questions about content and form and ways of acting as he 
did in order to "stay ahead" of him. Playing Brecht is using him
for 
the needs of the times. 
Brecht Today: An Australian Perspective 
Robyn Archer 
The picture for Brecht in Australia at present is a familiar one. The 
plays are very little performed, the poetry is not widely known, and 
the lyrics are a secondary adjunct to Kurt Weill's music, now better 
known in serious music circles. But the legacy of Bertolt Brecht's 
stage theory and methodology pervades everything we see on the 
stage: from opera to musicals, drama to cabaret, and I suspect, is 
invading the world of film and video too. I have a particularly good 
opportunity through my current roles as artistic director of the 
National Festival of Australian Theater and as a member of the 
Australia Council to observe widespread theatrical activity through- 
out the Australian continent, which is vast, isolated and diverse. I 
believe that there is only one planned production of a play by 
Brecht (Mother Courage) over the next twelve months. 
     In terms of actual texts by Brecht, the greatest exposure comes 
from those which have been set to music, and largely to music by 
144