88-619: Utpal Dutt ( listen ; 29 March 1929 – 19 August 1993) was an Indian actor, director, and writer-playwright. He was primarily an actor in Bengali theatre , where he became a pioneering figure in Modern Indian theatre , when he founded the "Little Theatre Group" in 1949. This group enacted many English, Shakespearean and Brecht plays, in a period now known as the "Epic theatre" period, before it immersed itself completely in highly political and radical theatre. His plays became an apt vehicle for
176-445: A Bengali folk drama form, performed largely across rural West Bengal. He started writing Jatra scripts, produced and acted in them, even formed his own Jatra troupe. His jatra political dramas were often produced on open-air stages and symbolised his commitment to communist ideology, and today form his lasting legacy. Through the 1970s three of his plays; Barricade , Dusswapner Nagari (City of Nightmares) and Ebaar Rajar Pala (Now it
264-824: A Hollywood film. The money he earned from selling the script enabled him to write The Visions of Simone Machard , Schweik in the Second World War and an adaptation of Webster 's The Duchess of Malfi . During the reign of the Third Reich , Brecht was a prominent practitioner of the Exilliteratur . He expressed his opposition to the National Socialist and Fascist movements in his famous plays: Life of Galileo , Mother Courage and Her Children , The Good Person of Szechwan , The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui , The Caucasian Chalk Circle , Fear and Misery of
352-454: A beer-hall. He did short sketches in which he played refractory employees, orchestral musicians or photographers, who hated their employers and made them look ridiculous. The employer was played by his partner, Liesl Karlstadt, a popular woman comedian who used to pad herself out and speak in a deep bass voice. Brecht's first full-length play, Baal (written 1918), arose in response to an argument in one of Kutscher's drama seminars, initiating
440-449: A child known as Eugen) was born on 10 February 1898 in Augsburg , Germany, the son of Berthold Friedrich Brecht (1869–1939) and his wife Sophie, née Brezing (1871–1920). Brecht's mother was a devout Protestant and his father a Roman Catholic (who had been persuaded to have a Protestant wedding). The modest house where he was born is today preserved as a Brecht Museum. His father worked for
528-606: A leading theoretician of epic theatre (which he later preferred to call "dialectical theatre") and the Verfremdungseffekt . When the Nazis came to power in Germany in 1933, Brecht fled his home country, initially to Scandinavia. During World War II he moved to Southern California where he established himself as a screenwriter, and meanwhile was being surveilled by the FBI . In 1947, he
616-458: A milestone in Brecht's early theatrical and dramaturgical development. Brecht's Edward II constituted his first attempt at collaborative writing and was the first of many classic texts he was to adapt. As his first solo directorial début, he later credited it as the germ of his conception of " epic theatre ". That September, a job as assistant dramaturg at Max Reinhardt 's Deutsches Theater —at
704-508: A military VD clinic ; the war ended a month later. In July 1919, Brecht and Paula Banholzer (who had begun a relationship in 1917) had a son, Frank. In 1920 Brecht's mother died. Frank died in 1943, fighting for Nazi Germany on the Eastern Front . Some time in either 1920 or 1921, Brecht took a small part in the political cabaret of the Munich comedian Karl Valentin . Brecht's diaries for
792-502: A music festival in July, as what Weill called a "stylistic exercise" in preparation for the large-scale piece. From that point on Caspar Neher became an integral part of the collaborative effort, with words, music and visuals conceived in relation to one another from the start. The model for their mutual articulation lay in Brecht's newly formulated principle of the " separation of the elements ", which he first outlined in " The Modern Theatre Is
880-649: A number of agitprop plays, praising the bolshevik collectivism (replaceability of each member of the collective in Man Equals Man ) and the Red Terror ( The Decision ). For us, man portrayed on the stage is significant as a social function. It is not his relationship to himself, nor his relationship to God, but his relationship to society which is central. Whenever he appears, his class or social stratum appears with him. His moral, spiritual or sexual conflicts are conflicts with society. In 1927 Brecht became part of
968-572: A number of films such as Megh (1961), a psychological thriller, Ghoom Bhangar Gaan (1965), Jhar (Storm) (1979), based on the Young Bengal movement, Baisakhi Megh (1981), Maa (1983) and Inquilab Ke Baad (1984). Forty years after the staging of the classic play Kallol which entails the story of the mutiny of Indian sailors against the British on the Arabian Sea, for which he was even imprisoned,
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#17331051804301056-467: A paper mill, becoming its managing director in 1914. At Augsburg, his maternal grandparents lived in the neighbouring house. They were Pietists and his grandmother influenced Bertolt Brecht and his brother Walter considerably during their childhood. Due to his grandmother's and his mother's influence, Brecht knew the Bible, a familiarity that would have a life-long effect on his writing. From his mother came
1144-737: A pending visa to the United States. During this time he co-wrote the play Mr Puntila and His Man Matti ( Herr Puntila und sein Knecht Matti ) with Hella Wuolijoki , with whom he lived in the Marlebäck manor house in Iitti . Upon receipt of the U.S. visa in May 1941, the Brecht family relocated to Southern California . They rented a two-story wooden bungalow in the Los Angeles beach suburb of Santa Monica . By
1232-697: A place for himself as a screenwriter. He co-wrote the screenplay for the Fritz Lang -directed film Hangmen Also Die! (1943) which was loosely based on the 1942 assassination of Reinhard Heydrich , the Nazi Deputy Reich Protector of the German-occupied Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia . Heydrich had been Heinrich Himmler 's right-hand man in the SS and a chief architect of the Holocaust ; he
1320-728: A play on the fragmented colonial psyche of Michael Madhusudan Dutt, and the ambivalence of swaying between "colonial" admiration and "anti-colonial" revolt. He went on to act in many Bengali films, including many films by Satyajit Ray . Dutt was also an extremely famous comic actor in Hindi cinema , though he acted in only a handful of Hindi films. He acted in comedy movies, the most notable ones being Guddi , Gol Maal , Naram Garam , Rang Birangi and Shaukeen . He received Filmfare Best Comedian Award for Golmaal , Naram Garam and Rang Birangi . He appeared in Bhuvan Shome , (for which he
1408-663: A play that would never see the stage in Brecht's lifetime. Happy End' s score by Weill produced many Brecht/Weill hits like "Der Bilbao-Song" and "Surabaya-Jonny". The masterpiece of the Brecht/Weill collaborations, Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny ( Aufstieg und Fall der Stadt Mahagonny ), caused an uproar when it premiered in 1930 in Leipzig, with Nazis in the audience protesting. The Mahagonny opera would premier later in Berlin in 1931 as
1496-468: A script for a semi-documentary feature film about the human impact of mass unemployment, Kuhle Wampe (1932), which was directed by Slatan Dudow . This striking film is notable for its subversive humour, outstanding cinematography by Günther Krampf , and Hanns Eisler's dynamic musical contribution. It still provides a vivid insight into Berlin during the last years of the Weimar Republic . Unhappy
1584-627: A teenager in the 1940s, he developed his passion and craft in English theatre, which resulted in the establishment of "The Shakespeareans" in 1947. Its first performance was a powerful production of Shakespeare's Richard III , with Dutt playing the king. This so impressed Geoffrey Kendal and Laura Kendal (parents of the actress Jennifer Kendal ), who led the itinerant "Shakespeareana Theatre Company", that they immediately hired him, and he did two year-long tours with them across India and Pakistan, enacting Shakespeare's plays, first 1947–49 and later 1953–54; and
1672-560: A trend that persisted throughout his career of creative activity that was generated by a desire to counter another work (both others' and his own, as his many adaptations and re-writes attest). "Anyone can be creative," he quipped, "it's rewriting other people that's a challenge." Brecht completed his second major play, Drums in the Night , in February 1919. Between November 1921 and April 1922 Brecht made acquaintance with many influential people in
1760-509: A triumphant sensation. Brecht spent the last years of the Weimar-era (1930–1933) in Berlin working with his "collective" on the Lehrstücke . These were a group of plays driven by morals, music and Brecht's budding epic theatre. The Lehrstücke often aimed at educating workers on Socialist issues. The Measures Taken ( Die Massnahme ) was scored by Hanns Eisler . In addition, Brecht worked on
1848-661: Is a professor of Theatre & Performance studies at the School of Arts & Aesthetics at Jawaharlal Nehru University , New Delhi . On 19 August 1993, Dutt died due to a heart attack right after he returned home from the S.S.K.M hospital, Calcutta , West Bengal where he had undergone dialysis. This is an incomplete filmography of Utpal Dutt. Bengali theatre Lores Genres Institutions Awards Folk genres Devotional Classical genres Modern genres People Instruments Dance Theater Organizations People Bengali theatre primarily refers to theatre performed in
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#17331051804301936-453: Is remembered as one of the last pioneering actor-managers of Indian theatre . He also formed groups like Arjo Opera and Bibek Yatra Samaj . Meanwhile, his transition to films happened while performing the role of Othello , when famous filmmaker Madhu Bose happened to be watching, and gave him the lead in his film Michael Madhusudan (1950), based on the life of the revolutionary Indian poet Michael Madhusudan Dutt . Later, he himself wrote
2024-771: Is the King's turn), drew crowds despite being officially banned. He wrote Louha Manab (The Iron Man), in 1964 while still in jail, based on a real trial against a pro-Stalin, ex-Politburo member by supporters of Nikita Khrushchev in Moscow of 1963. It was first staged at Alipore Jail in 1965, by the People's Little Theatre. His stay in jail unleashed a new period of rebellious and politically charged plays, including Tiner Toloar (The Tin Sword), partially based on Pygmalion , Dushapner Nagari (Nightmare City), Manusher Odhikare (Rights Of Man), based on
2112-554: The Bengali language . Bengali theatre is produced mainly in West Bengal , and in Bangladesh . The term may also refer to some Hindi theatres which are accepted by the Bengali people. Bengali theatre has its origins in British rule. It began as private entertainment in the early 19th century. In the pre-independence period, Bengali theatres played a pivotal role in manifesting dislike of
2200-726: The Berliner Ensemble . He retained Austrian nationality which was granted in 1950, and his overseas bank accounts from which he received valuable hard currency remittances. The copyrights on his writings were held by a Swiss company. Though he was never a member of the Communist Party, Brecht had been schooled in Marxism by the dissident communist Karl Korsch . Korsch's version of the Marxist dialectic influenced Brecht greatly, both his aesthetic theory and theatrical practice. Brecht received
2288-507: The British Raj . After the independence of India in 1947, leftist movements in West Bengal used theatre as a tool for social awareness. This added some unique characteristics to the art form that still have strong effects. These groups differentiate themselves ideologically from commercial Bengali theatre. The many theatres in West Bengal can be broadly divided into Kolkata -based theatres and rural theatres. Outside Bengali-speaking areas,
2376-566: The Neue Sachlichkeit movement. The collective's work "mirrored the artistic climate of the middle 1920s", Willett and Manheim argue: with their attitude of Neue Sachlichkeit (or New Matter-of-Factness), their stressing of the collectivity and downplaying of the individual, and their new cult of Anglo-Saxon imagery and sport. Together the "collective" would go to fights, not only absorbing their terminology and ethos (which permeates Man Equals Man ) but also drawing those conclusions for
2464-979: The Scottsboro Boys case, protests against the racial discrimination and injustice of the Scottsborough trial of 1931, Surya-Shikar (Hunting the Sun) (1978), Maha-Bidroha (The Great Rebellion) (1989), and Laal Durgo (Red Fort) (1990) about the demise of Communism, set in a fictitious East European country, and Janatar Aphim (Opiate of the People), (1990) lamented on Indian political parties exploiting religion for gain. In all, he wrote twenty-two full-length plays, fifteen poster plays, nineteen Jatra scripts, acted in thousands of shows, and directed more than sixty productions, apart from writing serious studies of Shakespeare, Girish Ghosh, Stanislavsky, Brecht, and revolutionary theatre, and translating Shakespeare and Brecht. He also directed
2552-717: The Stalin Peace Prize in 1954. His proximity to Marxist thought made him controversial in Austria, where his plays were boycotted by directors and not performed for more than ten years. Brecht wrote very few plays in his final years in East Berlin, none of them as famous as his previous works. He dedicated himself to directing plays and developing the talents of the next generation of young directors and dramaturgs, such as Manfred Wekwerth, Benno Besson and Carl Weber . At this time he wrote some of his most celebrated poems, including
2640-400: The copyrights of Brecht's work with her siblings. Brecht formed a writing collective which became prolific and very influential. Elisabeth Hauptmann , Margarete Steffin , Emil Burri, Ruth Berlau and others worked with Brecht and produced the multiple teaching plays , which attempted to create a new dramaturgy for participants rather than passive audiences. These addressed themselves to
2728-480: The independence of Pakistan in 1947, religion-based nationalism was strong and affected the theatre in eastern Bengal. In East Pakistan (modern-day Bangladesh), playwrights emerged such as Ibrahim Khan (1894–1978), Ibrahim Khalil (b. 1916), Akbar ad-Din (1895–1978) and others. These playwrights would create plays related to the Islamic history of the subcontinent and Middle East, glorifying past Muslim rulers as well as
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2816-568: The " dramaturgical collective" of Erwin Piscator 's first company, which was designed to tackle the problem of finding new plays for its "epic, political, confrontational, documentary theatre". Brecht collaborated with Piscator during the period of the latter's landmark productions, Hoppla, We're Alive! by Toller , Rasputin , The Adventures of the Good Soldier Schweik , and Konjunktur by Lania . Brecht's most significant contribution
2904-490: The "dangerous image of the self-denying woman" that recurs in his drama. Brecht's home life was comfortably middle class, despite what his occasional attempt to claim peasant origins implied. At school in Augsburg he met Caspar Neher , with whom he formed a life-long creative partnership. Neher designed many of the sets for Brecht's dramas and helped to forge the distinctive visual iconography of their epic theatre . When Brecht
2992-480: The 1920s and a renewing influence on the musical worldwide. One of its most famous lines underscored the hypocrisy of conventional morality imposed by the Church, working in conjunction with the established order, in the face of working-class hunger and deprivation: Erst kommt das Fressen Dann kommt die Moral. First the grub (lit. "eating like animals, gorging") Then the morality. The success of The Threepenny Opera
3080-538: The 1920s. From her house in Santa Monica Canyon, Viertel hosted frequent tea parties and salons where European intellectuals could mingle with Hollywood luminaries. Brecht first met actor Charles Laughton at a Viertel party, and it led to the two men collaborating on the English-language version of Life of Galileo . Although Brecht was not enamored of life in the movie capital, he worked hard to find
3168-446: The Bengali nationalism in Bengali theatre; which imbibed Bengali nationalism in the theatrical & cultural fields and eventually, that led to the independence of Bangladesh . The late 19th- and early 20th-century theatres had their own Bengali music . This form was pioneered by Girish Chandra Ghosh ; the era of Bengali theatre before him laid the groundwork, and after his death Bengali theatre music became more experimental. During
3256-577: The Berlin cultural scene. Amongst them was the playwright Arnolt Bronnen with whom he established a joint venture, the Arnolt Bronnen / Bertolt Brecht Company. Brecht changed the spelling of his first name to Bertolt to rhyme with Arnolt. In 1922 while still living in Munich, Brecht came to the attention of an influential Berlin critic, Herbert Ihering : "At 24 the writer Bert Brecht has changed Germany's literary complexion overnight"—he enthused in his review of Brecht's first play to be produced, Drums in
3344-522: The Brecht family residence for the next six years. They often received guests there including Walter Benjamin , Hanns Eisler and Ruth Berlau . Brecht also travelled frequently to Copenhagen, Paris, Moscow, New York and London for various projects and collaborations. When war seemed imminent in April 1939, he moved to Stockholm, where he remained for a year. After Germany invaded Norway and Denmark , Brecht left Sweden for Helsinki, Finland, where he awaited
3432-480: The Epic Theatre " (1930). The principle, a variety of montage , proposed by-passing the "great struggle for supremacy between words, music and production" as Brecht put it, by showing each as self-contained, independent works of art that adopt attitudes towards one another. In 1930 Brecht married Weigel; their daughter Barbara Brecht was born soon after the wedding. She also became an actress and would later share
3520-460: The HUAC at that time, the so-called Hollywood Ten , declined on First Amendment grounds to answer about their Communist Party affiliations and were cited for contempt. Brecht's decision to be a "cooperative" witness—albeit in an evasive way and providing no useful information—led to criticism of him, including accusations of betrayal. The day after his testimony, Brecht fled to Europe and never returned to
3608-480: The HUAC that he had never been a member of the Communist Party . He made wry jokes throughout the proceedings, punctuating his inability to speak English well with continuous references to the translators present, who transformed his German statements into English ones unintelligible to himself. HUAC vice-chairman Karl Mundt thanked Brecht for his cooperation. The remaining unfriendly witnesses who appeared before
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3696-501: The Jungle premiered in Munich, also directed by Engel. Opening night proved to be a "scandal"—a phenomenon that would characterize many of his later productions during the Weimar Republic —in which Nazis blew whistles and threw stink bombs at the actors on the stage. In 1924 Brecht worked with the novelist and playwright Lion Feuchtwanger (whom he had met in 1919) on an adaptation of Christopher Marlowe 's Edward II that proved to be
3784-541: The Night , but the productions did not materialize. The year 1927 also saw the first collaboration between Brecht and the young composer Kurt Weill . Together they began to develop Brecht's Mahagonny project, along thematic lines of the biblical Cities of the Plain but rendered in terms of the Neue Sachlichkeit ' s Amerikanismus , which had informed Brecht's previous work. They produced The Little Mahagonny for
3872-533: The Night , and In the Jungle , although at that point only Drums had been produced). The citation for the award insisted that: "[Brecht's] language is vivid without being deliberately poetic, symbolical without being over literary. Brecht is a dramatist because his language is felt physically and in the round." That year he married the Viennese opera singer Marianne Zoff . Their daughter, Hanne Hiob , born in March 1923,
3960-431: The Night —"[he] has given our time a new tone, a new melody, a new vision. [...] It is a language you can feel on your tongue, in your gums, your ear, your spinal column." In November it was announced that Brecht had been awarded the prestigious Kleist Prize (intended for unestablished writers and probably Germany's most significant literary award, until it was abolished in 1932) for his first three plays ( Baal , Drums in
4048-801: The Third Reich , and many others. However, his refusal to speak in support of Carola Neher , who died in the GULAG after being arrested during Joseph Stalin 's Great Purge , was harshly criticised by Russian émigrés living in the West. At the onset of the Cold War and " Second Red Scare " in the U.S., Brecht was blacklisted by movie studio bosses and investigated by the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC). Along with more than 40 other Hollywood writers, directors, actors and producers, he
4136-530: The U.S. He lived in Zurich , Switzerland for a year. In February 1948 in the Swiss town of Chur , Brecht staged an adaptation of Sophocles ' Antigone , based on a translation by Hölderlin . The play was published under the title Antigonemodell 1948 , accompanied by an essay on the importance of creating a " non-Aristotelian " form of theatre. In 1949 he moved to East Berlin and established his theatre company there,
4224-632: The Waves), (based on the Royal Indian Navy Mutiny of 1946, which ran packed shows at Calcutta's Minerva Theatre), might provoke anti-government protests in West Bengal. The play turned out to be his longest-running play at the Minerva. Manusher Adhikare (Of People's Rights) in 1968, staged as a documentary drama, was a new genre in Bengali theatre before, though it turned out to be his last production of
4312-598: The dialect spoken in Kolkata, Bengali folk theatres have performances in some of the other Bengali dialects. There is another category of Bengali theatre called Jatra , which is run commercially in rural West Bengal and Bangladesh. This traditional Bengali theatre form is mostly performed by travelling troupes. The most prominent characteristics of Jatra are melodramatic contents and presentation, exaggerated expressions and movements, and an extensive use of traditional musical instruments. Jatra originally explored subjects concerning
4400-483: The era of Girish Chandra, all stage-plays included some form of traditional Bengali music, and dancer-singers who performed before and between the acts. Mythological plays would have Kirtan-anga songs, epics would include indigenous styles such as khyāmtā , and comedies and farcical plays often included tappā songs by Nidhu Babu . Bertolt Brecht Eugen Berthold Friedrich Brecht (10 February 1898 – 14 August 1956), known as Bertolt Brecht and Bert Brecht ,
4488-558: The expression of his Marxist ideologies, visible in socio-political plays such as Kallol (1965), Manusher Adhikar , Louha Manob (1964), Tiner Toloar and Maha-Bidroha . He also acted in over 100 Bengali and Hindi films in a career spanning 40 years, and remains most known for his roles in films such as Mrinal Sen ’s Bhuvan Shome (1969), Satyajit Ray ’s Agantuk (1991), Gautam Ghose ’s Padma Nadir Majhi (1992) and Hrishikesh Mukherjee 's breezy Hindi comedies such as Gol Maal (1979) and Rang Birangi (1983). He also did
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#17331051804304576-488: The group at the Minerva, as they soon left the theatre. Thereafter, the group was given the name the "People's Little Theatre"; as it took on yet another new direction, his work came closer to the people, and this phase played an important role in popularising Indian street theatre, as he started performing at street-corners or "poster" plays, in open spaces, without any aid or embellishment, before enormous crowds. The year also marked his transition into Jatra or Yatra Pala ,
4664-505: The history of the Pakistan Movement . Natyaguru Nurul Momen was the pioneer by breaking away from these dramas glorifying Islam & moved to Bengali Nationalism. He believed that, Bengalis are Bengalis first, then next comes his religion. He was the trailblazer & doyen of Bengali theatre's progressiveness & secular tradition. Natyaguru Nurul Momen 's maiden play "Rupantor" and 2nd play Nemesis (Momen play) ushered in
4752-575: The improvisational approach of the commedia dell'arte in which the actors chatted with the prompter about their roles), and Pirandello 's Six Characters in Search of an Author in his group of Berlin theatres. A new version of Brecht's third play, now entitled Jungle: Decline of a Family , opened at the Deutsches Theater in October 1924, but was not a success. In the asphalt city I'm at home. From
4840-663: The land where heroes are needed. Fearing persecution, Brecht fled Nazi Germany in February 1933, just after Hitler took power. Following brief spells in Prague, Zurich and Paris, he and Weigel accepted an invitation from journalist and author Karin Michaëlis to move to Denmark. The Brechts first stayed with Michaëlis at her house on the small island of Thurø close to the island of Funen . They later bought their own house in Svendborg on Funen. This Svendborg house at Skovsbo Strand 8 became
4928-416: The late 1930s, the West Side of Los Angeles had become a thriving expatriate colony of European intellectuals and artists. Because the colony included so many writers, directors, actors, and composers from German-speaking countries, it has been referred to as "Weimar on the Pacific". At the center of the émigré community was Brecht's old friend Salka Viertel , whom he had known in the Berlin theatre world of
5016-412: The main villain characters in some of the major successful Amitabh Bachchan starrers such as The Great Gambler , Inquilaab (film) and the bilingual Hindi/Bangla movie Barsaat Ki Ek Raat . In fact, Utpal Dutt was the Hero (main lead) in Amitabh Bachchan's maiden venture Saat Hindustani . "Revolutionary theatre is essentially people's theatre, which means it must be played before the masses,.." Dutt
5104-426: The massive worker arts organisation that existed in Germany and Austria in the 1920s. So did Brecht's first great play, Saint Joan of the Stockyards , which attempts to portray the drama in financial transactions. This collective adapted John Gay 's The Beggar's Opera , with Brecht's lyrics set to music by Kurt Weill . Retitled The Threepenny Opera ( Die Dreigroschenoper ) it was the biggest hit in Berlin of
5192-407: The most influential personalities in the Group Theatre movement. While accepting Brecht's belief of the audience being "co-authors" of the theatre, he rejected orthodoxies of "Epic theatre" as being impractical in India. He also remained a teacher of English at the South Point School in Kolkata. Soon he would turn to his native Bengali , producing translations of several Shakespearean tragedies and
5280-421: The next few years record numerous visits to see Valentin perform. Brecht compared Valentin to Charlie Chaplin , for his "virtually complete rejection of mimicry and cheap psychology". Writing in his Messingkauf Dialogues years later, Brecht identified Valentin, along with Wedekind and Büchner , as his "chief influences" at that time: But the man he learnt most from was the clown Valentin , who performed in
5368-634: The publisher's commission ran out. In 1925 in Mannheim the artistic exhibition Neue Sachlichkeit (" New Objectivity ") had given its name to the new post- Expressionist movement in the German arts. With little to do at the Deutsches Theater, Brecht began to develop his Man Equals Man project, which was to become the first product of "the 'Brecht collective'—that shifting group of friends and collaborators on whom he henceforward depended." This collaborative approach to artistic production, together with aspects of Brecht's writing and style of theatrical production, mark Brecht's work from this period as part of
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#17331051804305456-436: The question of how to dramatize the complex economic relationships of modern capitalism in his unfinished project Joe P. Fleischhacker (which Piscator's theatre announced in its programme for the 1927–28 season). It wasn't until his Saint Joan of the Stockyards (written between 1929 and 1931) that Brecht solved it. In 1928 he discussed with Piscator plans to stage Shakespeare 's Julius Caesar and Brecht's own Drums in
5544-477: The role of a sculptor, Sir Digindra Narayan, in the episode Seemant Heera of Byomkesh Bakshi (TV series) on Doordarshan in 1993, shortly before his death. He received National Film Award for Best Actor in 1970 and three Filmfare Best Comedian Awards . In 1990, the Sangeet Natak Akademi , India's National Academy of Music, Dance and Theatre, awarded him its highest award, the Sangeet Natak Akademi Fellowship for lifetime contribution to theatre. Utpal Dutta
5632-411: The sense that the new subject matter demanded a new dramatic form , the use of songs to interrupt and comment: all these are found in his notes and essays of the 1920s, and he bolstered them by citing such Piscatorial examples as the step-by-step narrative technique of Schweik and the oil interests handled in Konjunktur ('Petroleum resists the five-act form'). Brecht was struggling at the time with
5720-436: The tales of Radha-Krishna . But at present, it has been modernized to feature crisis through stories. Many popular Bengali film artists participate in Jatra. Hindi theatres which are accepted by the Bengali people include the productions of Rangakarmee (established 1976) directed by Usha Ganguly , and productions by Padatik (established 1972) under Shyamanand Jalan , who started with Anamika in 1955. Following
5808-476: The term "Bengali theatre" primarily refers to Kolkata-based groups, as the rural theatres are less well-known. The two types are similar in form and content, but the Kolkata-based theatres are better funded and staffed. This is mainly due to the influx of expertise from rural areas to Kolkata in search of a larger audience. There are also Bengali folk theatres. There are many dialects of Bengali spoken in West Bengal and Bangladesh. The larger Bengali theatres use
5896-447: The theatre as a whole which Brecht set down in his theoretical essay "Emphasis on Sport" and tried to realise by means of the harsh lighting, the boxing-ring stage and other anti-illusionistic devices that henceforward appeared in his own productions. In 1925, Brecht saw two films that had a significant influence on him: Chaplin 's The Gold Rush and Eisenstein 's Battleship Potemkin . Brecht had compared Valentin to Chaplin, and
5984-504: The time one of the leading three or four theatres in the world—brought him to Berlin. In 1923 Brecht's marriage to Zoff began to break down (though they did not divorce until 1927). Brecht had become involved with both Elisabeth Hauptmann and Helene Weigel. Brecht and Weigel's son, Stefan , was born in October 1924. In his role as dramaturg, Brecht had much to stimulate him but little work of his own. Reinhardt staged Shaw 's Saint Joan , Goldoni 's Servant of Two Masters (with
6072-440: The two of them provided models for Galy Gay in Man Equals Man . Brecht later wrote that Chaplin "would in many ways come closer to the epic than to the dramatic theatre's requirements." They met several times during Brecht's time in the United States, and discussed Chaplin's Monsieur Verdoux project, which it is possible Brecht influenced. In 1926 a series of short stories was published under Brecht's name, though Hauptmann
6160-464: The very start Provided with every last sacrament: With newspapers. And tobacco. And brandy To the end mistrustful, lazy and content. At this time Brecht revised his important "transitional poem", "Of Poor BB". In 1925, his publishers provided him with Elisabeth Hauptmann as an assistant for the completion of his collection of poems, Devotions for the Home ( Hauspostille , eventually published in January 1927). She continued to work with him after
6248-446: The works of Russian classicists into Bengali. Starting in 1954, he wrote and directed controversial Bengali political plays, and also Maxim Gorky 's Lower Depths in Bengali in 1957. In 1959, the LTG secured the lease of Minerva Theatre, Kolkata , where most notably Angar (Coal) (1959), based on the exploitation of coal-miners was showcased. For the next decade the group staged several plays here, with him as an impresario, and he still
6336-472: The young Brecht an admiration for the iconoclastic dramatist and cabaret star Frank Wedekind . From July 1916, Brecht's newspaper articles began appearing under the new name "Bert Brecht" (his first theatre criticism for the Augsburger Volkswille appeared in October 1919). Brecht was drafted into military service in the autumn of 1918, only to be posted back to Augsburg as a medical orderly in
6424-524: Was 16, World War I broke out. Initially enthusiastic, Brecht soon changed his mind on seeing his classmates "swallowed by the army". Brecht was nearly expelled from school in 1915 for writing an essay in response to the line Dulce et decorum est pro patria mori from the Roman poet Horace , calling it Zweckpropaganda ("cheap propaganda for a specific purpose") and arguing that only an empty-headed person could be persuaded to die for their country. His expulsion
6512-436: Was a German theatre practitioner , playwright, and poet. Coming of age during the Weimar Republic , he had his first successes as a playwright in Munich and moved to Berlin in 1924, where he wrote The Threepenny Opera with Elisabeth Hauptmann and Kurt Weill and began a life-long collaboration with the composer Hanns Eisler . Immersed in Marxist thought during this period, Brecht wrote didactic Lehrstücke and became
6600-506: Was a successful German actress. In 1923, Brecht wrote a scenario for what was to become a short slapstick film, Mysteries of a Barbershop , directed by Erich Engel and starring Karl Valentin. Despite a lack of success at the time, its experimental inventiveness and the subsequent success of many of its contributors have meant that it is now considered one of the most important films in German film history . In May of that year, Brecht's In
6688-669: Was acclaimed for his passionate portrayal of Othello . After the Kendals left India for the first time in 1949, Utpal Dutt renamed his group the "Little Theatre Group" (LTG), and over the next three years, continued to perform and produce plays by Ibsen, Shaw, Tagore, Gorky and Konstantin Simonov. The group later decided to stage exclusively Bengali plays and to eventually evolve into a production company that would produce several Bengali movies. He also remained an active member of Gananatya Sangha , which performed through rural areas of West Bengal. He
6776-469: Was also a founding member of Indian People's Theatre Association (IPTA), an organisation known for its leftist leaning, but left it after a couple of years, when he started his theatre group. He wrote and directed what he called "Epic Theatre", a term he borrowed from Bertolt Brecht , to bring about discussion and change in Bengal. His Brecht Society, formed in 1948, was presided by Satyajit Ray. He became one of
6864-497: Was also a lifelong Marxist and an active supporter of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) , and his leftist "Revolutionary Theatre" was a phenomenon in the contemporary Bengali theatre. He staged many street dramas in favour of the Communist Party. He was jailed by the Congress government in West Bengal in 1965 and detained for several months, as the then state government feared that the subversive message of his play Kallol (Sound of
6952-708: Was awarded the National Film Award for Best Actor), Ek Adhuri Kahani and Chorus , all by Mrinal Sen ; Agantuk , Jana Aranya , Joi Baba Felunath and Hirak Rajar Deshe , by Satyajit Ray ; Paar and Padma Nadir Majhi , by Gautam Ghose ; Bombay Talkie , The Guru , and Shakespeare Wallah , by James Ivory ; Jukti Takko Aar Gappo , by Ritwik Ghatak ; Guddi , Gol Maal and Kotwal Saab by Hrishikesh Mukherjee ; Shaukeen , Priyatama and Hamari Bahu Alka directed by Basu Chatterjee and Amanush , Anand Ashram and Barsaat Ki Ek Raat by Shakti Samanta . Utpal Dutt also played
7040-506: Was born into a Bengali family on 29 March 1929 in Barisal . His father was Girijaranjan Dutta. After initial schooling at St. Edmund's School, Shillong , he completed Matriculation from St. Xavier's Collegiate School , Kolkata in 1945. He graduated with English Literature Honours from St. Xavier's College, Calcutta , University of Calcutta in 1949. Though he was active primarily in Bengali theatre, he started his career in English theatre. As
7128-525: Was closely associated with writing them. Following the production of Man Equals Man in Darmstadt that year, Brecht began studying Marxism and socialism in earnest, under the supervision of Hauptmann. "When I read Marx 's Capital ", a note by Brecht reveals, "I understood my plays." Marx was, it continues, "the only spectator for my plays I'd ever come across." Inspired by the developments in USSR , Brecht wrote
7216-456: Was followed by the quickly thrown together Happy End . It was a personal and a commercial failure. At the time the book was purported to be by the mysterious Dorothy Lane (now known to be Elisabeth Hauptmann, Brecht's secretary and close collaborator). Brecht only claimed authorship of the song texts. Brecht would later use elements of Happy End as the germ for his Saint Joan of the Stockyards ,
7304-494: Was known as "The Hangman of Prague" ( German : der Henker von Prag ). For this film, Brecht's fellow expatriate, composer Hanns Eisler , was nominated for an Academy Award in the category of Best Music Score . The fact that three refugee artists from Nazi Germany – Lang, Brecht and Eisler – collaborated to make the film exemplified the influence this generation of German exiles had on American culture. Hangmen Also Die! turned out to be Brecht's only script that became
7392-454: Was only prevented by the intervention of Romuald Sauer, a priest who also served as a substitute teacher at Brecht's school. On his father's recommendation, Brecht sought to avoid being conscripted into the army by exploiting a loophole which allowed for medical students to be deferred. He subsequently registered for a medical course at Munich University , where he enrolled in 1917. There he studied drama with Arthur Kutscher , who inspired in
7480-466: Was part of the first group of Hollywood film artists to be subpoenaed by the House Un-American Activities Committee for alleged Communist Party affiliations. The day after testifying, he returned to Europe, eventually settling in East Berlin where he co-founded the theatre company Berliner Ensemble with his wife and long-time collaborator, actress Helene Weigel . Eugen Berthold Friedrich Brecht (as
7568-579: Was revived in 2005, as Gangabokshe Kallol , part of the state-funded "Utpal Dutt Natyotsav" (Utpal Dutt Theatre Festival), on an off-shore stage, by the Hooghly River in Kolkata. The Last Lear , the 2007 English film based on his play Aajker Shahjahan , on an eccentric Shakespearean actor, and directed for the screen by Rituparno Ghosh , later won the National Film Award for Best Feature Film in English . In 1960, Dutt married theatre and film actress Shobha Sen . Their only daughter, Bishnupriya Dutt,
7656-516: Was subpoenaed in September 1947 by the HUAC. Although he was one of the 19 "unfriendly" witnesses who had declared ahead of time they would not cooperate with the House investigation, Brecht eventually decided to go before the committee and answer questions. He later explained he was following the advice of attorneys and did not want to delay his planned trip to Europe. On 30 October 1947, Brecht testified to
7744-483: Was to the adaptation of the unfinished episodic comic novel Schweik , which he later described as a "montage from the novel". The Piscator productions influenced Brecht's ideas about staging and design, and alerted him to the radical potentials offered to the " epic " playwright by the development of stage technology (particularly projections). What Brecht took from Piscator "is fairly plain, and he acknowledged it" Willett suggests: The emphasis on Reason and didacticism,
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