The David Fragments in Performance

Summary

In the tenth volume of the BFA, the editors attribute nineteen fragments, predominantly from Brecht's notebooks of 1919–21, under the title David. Eight of these fragments (A1–A8) are essentially notes toward possible structures of an envisioned David play about the life of the biblical king, while eleven (B1–B11) are mostly fragments of dialogue. The range of styles contained among the B-fragments is broad: some are as short as a paragraph (such as the B5 “Absalom” fragment, which reads more like a snippet of poetry), while the longest fragment, B10, includes dozens of characters and runs to more than three thousand words in the German. Arguably the most “complete” scene is B9, a dialogue between David and Saul, probably written (as shown below) in direct response to the David and Saul scene composed by Otto Zarek in 1920, which he read to Brecht in July of that year, according to Brecht's diary. Though Brecht had many irons in the fire at the Münchner Kammerspiele, the text was never performed at the time; Brecht's own engagement with the David story resurfaced in the period 1937–44 in the (also unfinished) Goliath opera project with Hanns Eisler. The David texts were first staged in German in 1995 at the Hebbel Theater in Berlin, in a production entitled David and directed by Brigitte Grothum. This production used the Old Testament account as a chronological structuring principle for the arrangement of the texts and also drew upon some of the later Goliath materials, as well as newly written “framing” material. Though the fragments were discussed by David Jobling in his biblical scholarship, the Trinity College project generated the first complete English translation and English-language performance of the David material.

This article will explore the 2017 production The David Fragments— staged at the Samuel Beckett Theatre (Dublin) and the Greenwood Theatre (London)—from multiple perspectives. First, it will address the impact of the Bible on Brecht as a young writer and some of his reference points for David, noting the divergence from the biblical tradition that is apparent in Brecht's handling of the characters. Second, it will identify the dramaturgical sources and methods used to create the new adaptation.