Bertolt Brecht
            
                Critical Lives
Publisher: Reaktion Books
Published: 2014
Number of pages: 240
ISBN-13: 9781780232621
Description: Known for his experimental, modernist Epic Theatre and its 'alienation effect', Bertolt Brecht (1898 - 1956) sought to break down the division between high art and popular culture. The Threepenny Opera, his collaboration with composer Kurt Weill, was a milestone in musical theatre, and plays like Mother Courage and Galileo changed the course of modern drama and aesthetic theory. Philip Glahn looks at Brecht's life and works through his plays and stories, poems and political essays in order to illustrate how they trace a lifelong attempt to relate to specific social, economic and political circumstances.