BRECHT AND THE ENGLISH THEATRE

That future historians of English drama will describe the period since 1956 as an era of Brechtian influence is quite possible. If so, the phenomenon will be an illustration of the quirks and ironies of cultural diffusion between nations: for that Brechtian era had a great deal of talk and discussion about Brecht and what he was thought to stand for, but few valid productions of Brecht, little genuine knowledge about Brecht, and hence little evidence of any influence of Brecht’s actual work and thought. The “Brechtian” era in England stood under the aegis not of Brecht himself but of various second-hand ideas and concepts about Brecht, an image created from misunderstandings and misconceptions. Yet, even though Columbus thought he had landed in Asia, he nevertheless discovered something; even though the idea of Greek tragedy on which the theatre of Racine and Corneille was based may have been wrong, the value of the work of these dramatists is undeniable; and whether the amalgam of ideas and heartsearchings that became known in England as the Brechtian influence was a true reflection of his work or not, in the last resort some interesting innovations results from it-and the British theatre will never be quite the same again.