The major contribution of the English theatre to last year's Brecht centenary was Lee Hall's dazzling version of Mr Puntila and His Man Matti, presented by the Right Size, a touring company led by the comic actors Sean Foley and Hamish McColl. Their prologue goes some way to explaining why the Anglophone response to the Brechtfest was so muted. Announcing that 'Before we start/this evening's art/we'd like to take you through a bit of theory,' Foley and McColl went on to outline the origins of Marxism, the theory of surplus value and the essence of Brechtian dramaturgy in 16 doggerel lines.

LRB 4 March 1999 | PDF Download