Now published for the International Brecht Society by Camden House under the Society's editorship, the Brecht Yearbook is the central scholarly forum for discussion of the life and work of Bertolt Brecht and of aspects of theater and literature that were of particular interest to him, especially the politics of literature and theater in a global context. The Yearbook welcomes a wide variety of perspectives and approaches, and, like Brecht himself, it is committed to the u...

Goethe's Faust reworks the late-medieval myth of Dr Faust, a brilliant scholar so disillusioned he resolves to make a contract or wager with the devil, Mephistopheles. The devil will do all he asks on Earth and seek to grant him a moment in life so glorious that he will wish it to last for ever. But if Faust does bid the moment stay, he falls to Mephisto and must serve him after death. In this first part of Goethe's great work the embittered thinker and Mephistopheles enter into their agre...

From the Translator's Introduction:"The Organs of the Brain is quite representative of the style of farce which was abundantly popular in western Europe in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, the type epitomized in the Figaro plays of Pierre Beaumarchais, the comic operas of Gioacchino Rossini, and the sentimental plays of Elizabeth Inchbald. It has all the usual elements of such theatre: cross-dressing, deceit, clown figures, a bombastic lord, sneaky servants, cleve...

Friedrich Schiller's "The Maid of Orleans" is a poignant five-act play that intricately weaves themes of nationalism, heroism, and the struggles of identity through the lens of the legendary figure, Joan of Arc. Utilizing an elevated, lyrical style characteristic of Romantic literature, Schiller explores the tragic interplay between personal conviction and political duty. Set against the backdrop of the Hundred Years' War, this work personifies the heroic ideal while delving into deep psyc...

Friedrich Schiller (1759-1805) was one of the most influential of all playwrights, the author of deeply moving dramas that explored human fears, desires and ideals. Written at the age of twenty-one, The Robbers was his first play. A passionate consideration of liberty, fraternity and deep betrayal, it quickly established his fame throughout Germany and wider Europe. Wallenstein, produced nineteen years later, is regarded as Schiller's masterpiece: a deeply moving exploration of a flawed ge...

"I’m good Hamlet gi’me a cause for grief"At first glance, readers of The Hamletmachine (1979) could be forgiven for wondering whether it is actually a play at all: it opens with a montage of texts that are not ascribed to a character, there is no vestige of a plot, and the whole piece lasts a total of ten pages.Yet, Heiner Müller’s play regularly features in theatres’ repertoires and is frequently staged by university theatre departments. In four s...

Did you know that if you allow your child to learn a foreign language today, you are gearing him/her up for great societal contributions tomorrow? If you are fluent in more than one language, you can enhance your country’s economic competitiveness. You can also help to maintain security and political interests as well as promote cultural diversity. In short, you're preparing your child for greatness.

By the time Frederich Schiller came to write the Wallenstein trilogy, his reputation as one of Germany’s leading playwrights was all but secured. Consisting of Wallenstein’s Camp, The Piccolomini and Wallenstein’s Death, this suite of plays appeared between 1798 and 1799, each production under the original direction of Schiller’s collaborator and mentor, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe. Across the three plays, which are now commonly performed and printed together, Schiller charts the thwarted r...