This scene, from Act Two, takes place in the Piccadilly Bar, where Kragler argues with the parents and new fiance of his former fiancee, Anna, while the sounds of the Sparacist revolt are heard outside. Selective realism is a term that best describes Brecht's style of production. From his earliest times, he insisted on carefully constrcuted stage properties, so that they might function equally well in a real-life situation. It is a comic but bitter criticism on how industrial society defaces its citizens and turns them into an undifferentiated mob. Decor is by Ted Otto who successfully translated the epic nature of Brecht's plays to the stage.
Set pieces consist only of what is needed to establish place, and the background is a cyclorama.
The scene depicted here is Katrin's death scene. Decor by Ted Otto. Visible in this photograph is the half-curtain and the wire pulley device used to draw it. A loud rattle of metal passing over metal is heard when this curtain is drawn closed in an attempt to rouse the spectator from an position of passive entertainment. Brecht frequently called attention to the devices of the theater in order to remine the audience to think about the play critically and objectively.