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Friday May 11, 2007

TJT presenting little-known Bertolt Brecht play

by dan pine
staff writer

Decades before TV invented the docudrama, German playwright Bertolt Brecht invented the docu-play with his 1938 masterpiece, “Fear and Misery of the Third Reich.”

The Eastenders Repertory Theater’s new production of the play is now running at Traveling Jewish Theater in San Francisco, then moves to Berkeley’s Jewish Community Center of the East Bay.

Over the course of 24 short playlets, Brecht documents daily life in pre-war Nazi Germany, beginning with the first days of Hitler’s regime and ending with the 1938 invasion of Austria. The play exposes the endemic brutality of German society then.

Among the cast members of the new production is Alex Senauke. Though only 12, the irony of his being cast has not escaped him. Senauke’s father is Jewish, yet his principal role in the play is as a devious member of the Hitler Youth.

“I play Klaus Heinrich, a child in a German household,” says the Berkeley middle-schooler. “In the scene his parents are arguing. He listens and then he leaves. His parents are afraid he sold them out.”

To prepare, Senauke undertook a crash course in history. He now has a decent understanding of the world Brecht depicts. “Basically he’s trying to show the injustice of the Third Reich,” says the young actor, “not just to the Jews but the German people.”

One of the 24 short plays features a Jewish wife who must leave her husband in order to save herself. Another is about a judge forced to rule in a political trial. If he decides one way, a Nazi faction will come after him. If he rules the other way, a different group will mark him for death.

Though best known for “Threepenny Opera” and “The Caucasian Chalk Circle,” Brecht often injected strong anti-fascist leanings into his work. Of “Fear and Misery of the Third Reich,” the playwright said: “How ineffectual terror is bound to be, in fact, how inevitably it must create resistance, even in sections of the population that originally welcomed it with cheers.”

As if to prove the sentiment, Brecht’s original title for the play was “99 Percent,” a commentary on the fact that Hitler was elected to power with 99 percent of the German people voting him in.

Eastenders Repertory Company’s presentation of Bertolt Brecht’s “Fear and Misery of the Third Reich” plays 8 p.m. Friday and Saturday, May 11 and 12, and 2 p.m. Sunday, May 13, at Traveling Jewish Theatre, 470 Florida St., S.F. It then plays 7:30 p.m. Thursday, Saturday and Sunday, May 17-20, with a 2 p.m. Sunday matinee, at the Jewish Community Center of the East Bay, 1414 Walnut St., Berkeley. Tickets: $20. Information: (510) 568-4118.