Hanging out with Bertold

The weather this week in Berlin has been a big disappointment. With the exception of yesterday (July 1st), it's been cold and rainy. Susan and I actually bought jackets yesterday. Today we slept in and then we visited the Topography of Terror, which has been improved since last year! First of all, there's a new chronological exhibition that runs the length of the Gestapo-foundation ruins that covers the events in Berlin between 1933 and the present. There's also an exhibition commemorating the trial of Adolf Eichmann in the documentation center. There's no way I'm going to take another student group to Berlin without taking them to the Topography site.

The rain really put a "damper" on things (har har) and Susan and I spent a few hours at the Berliner Republic restaurant along the Schiffbauerdamm (next to the Berliner Ensemble theater). I got a photo with Brecht as well.

Dreigroschenoper! (Three Penny Opera)

Wow! Watched the current production of Bertold Brecht's "Three-Penny Opera" at the Berliner Ensemble last night. It was absolutely incredible! I found a brief review of the show online and embedded it below. I wanted to watch it last year, but it wasn't playing while I was in Berlin. Fortunately, the timing worked out this year.
I would describe the look of the piece as expressionistic, and it seemed like a mash-up of Tim Burton and Brecht. The makeup was striking and the costuming further accentuated the cartoonish/animated look of the piece. It was a creative means of achieving Brecht's "Verfremdungs-Effekt".
My favorite actor was Christina Drechsler playing Polly Peachum. Her interpretation of the character was dynamic--you couldn't take your eyes off her. She's the girl Mack the Knife is dragging onstage by her arm...

Brecht's Schiffbauerdamm Theater

Yesterday I ordered tickets to two shows at the Theater am Schiffbauerdamm--the Berliner Ensemble that Bertolt Brecht made famous--The Berliner Ensemble is to Brecht enthusiasts (can there be such a thing?) what the Globe is to Shakespeare fanatics. I'm going to watch both Furcht und Elend des Dritten Reiches (Fear and Misery of the Third Reich) and Der Kaukasische Kreidekreis (The Caucasian Chalk-Circle).
The Skylight Opera put on a terrific production of Threepenny Opera back in 1998. Complete with a strung-out "goth" narrator. Other shows at the Berliner Esemble this season: Mother Courage and Her Children along with Wedekind's Spring Awakening--a show re-imagined and staged on Broadway in recent years.