This essay focuses on Brecht’s commitment to women’s emancipation on the basis of his interest in the writings and activism of Marx, Engels, Bebel, Lenin, Clara Zetkin, and Rosa Luxemburg; his collaborative work over the years with numerous women writers and theater practitioners; and his ability as a playwright to create some of the most intriguing female characters in the history of theater. The essay goes on to examine Brecht’s reception by feminist theater critics and practitioners, to provide a summary of productions of his plays with leading women actors in the US and the UK, and to discuss two productions set in Africa (Democratic Republic of Congo and Uganda) based on Brecht’s Mother Courage and Her Children.

This chapter examines the Berliner Ensemble, the theater company Brecht and his wife Helene Weigel founded in East Berlin in 1949. It considers Brecht’s desire to create an ensemble to help realize the theoretical positions he had drafted while in exile and the difficulties the Berliner Ensemble faced in its infancy. These included a lack of theater space for a new company in the wake of the devastation of World War II and intense ideological hostility from the ruling party. At times, the problems encountered posed a direct threat to the BE’s very existence, yet it was the quality of its work that ultimately saved it and allowed it to thrive on the international stage.