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Karl Valentin and Bertolt Brecht

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  07 December 2021

Denis Calandra
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Extract

On March 14, 1920, Bertolt Brecht wrote to Doris Hasenfratz (Doris Manheim) that he had just returned to Munich at midday after a fifteen-hour train ride from Berlin and had gone directly to the cabaret Charivari where the comedian Karl Valentin was playing; Brecht sat “convulsed with laughter until 11 o'clock.” Bernhard Reich, a director closely associated with Brecht during the twenties, describes the fascination Brecht had with these performances:

We often discussed how one could regenerate the stagnant theatre … The Munich folk comedian Karl Valentin and his ensemble were giving a guest performance at the Kammerspiele. Brecht, the ‘enemy of the theatre,’ came to every Valentin premiere, and he prevailed upon me to go and see the sketch. The Musicians Rehearse (Die Musikprobe) … It was wildly funny. Brecht shrieked with laughter … (He) enjoyed Valentin enormously, and I suspect he saw particular Valentin scenes so often because he was collecting observations and studying the plays as well as the acting technique of this extraordinary man.

Type
Popular Entertainments and The Avant-Garde
Information
The Drama Review , Volume 18 , Issue 1: Popular Entertainments , March 1974 , pp. 86 - 98
Copyright
Copyright © 1974 The Drama Review

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References

* There are several versions of this story, all about the same in substance, though some confusion exists about which play was in rehearsal when the exchange took place. Brecht as the Dramaturg in the Messingkauf says “It was my first play,” which has led some people to assume he meant Drums in the Night. Since Edward II was Brecht's first play as a director and the anecdote in all versions centers on a director's question, it is more likely than “Drums,” which does not have an actual battle scene between soldiers. Valentin was certain to have been present for some of the rehearsals of Edward II in 1924, since he had been hired by the kammerspiele specifically to help cover the costs of what were then considered elaborate production methods—rehearsal for longer than three weeks—insisted upon by Brecht.