Bertolt Brecht

Bertolt Brecht (1898–1956) was a German playwright and poet who reshaped modern theatre by making social relations visible rather than hiding the stage's construction. The Threepenny Opera uses songs and criminal commerce to expose the kinship between respectability and profit. Mother Courage and Her Children follows a trader through war, measuring survival against the losses that war itself produces. The Caucasian Chalk Circle turns a dispute over a child into a test of whether justice should follow ownership or care. Life of Galileo brings scientific inquiry into conflict with authority and personal fear, while The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui recasts dictatorship as a grotesque gangster ascent. The Good Person of Szechwan asks whether goodness can endure inside an exploitative economy. The Threepenny Opera displays Brecht's satirical music most sharply; Mother Courage reveals the tragic pressure of his historical theatre.