The Shape of Brecht’s Duchess of Malfi

Abstract

The Shape of Brecht's Duchess of Malfi M. S. Barranger I Brecht's adaptation of The Duchess of Malfi (John Web· ster's 1613 tragedy) is for many reasons a theatrical curiosity. It is one of five plays that Brecht wrote during his six-year stay in this country. During his exile in the United States between the years 1941-47, Brecht wrote three original plays (The Vis­ ions of Simone Machard, Schweyk in the Second World War, The Caucasian Chalk Circle), the English-language version of Galileo, and the controversial adaptation of The Duchess of Malfi. The Duchess is notable as the only one of Brecht's "Amer­ ican" works to reach the .professional stage during his years of exile. The New York production of Galileo opened on December 7, 1947, but Brecht had already left the country. The adaptation was apparently the result of Brecht's desire to write a vehicle for the famous exiled German actress Elisabeth Bergner.I An arrangement was made between Bergner and her producer-husband Paul Czinner, that Brecht and the poet/ translator H. R. Hays should adapt the Jacobean .play together. They began work in April 1943, and by June 26 a script had been completed and copyrighted in the names of Brecht and Hays. Brecht showed the script to Hanns Eisler and asked him to write the music. Nothing more is heard about the project until the winter of 1943 when, in New York, Brecht (apparently without consulting Hays) invited W. H. Auden to collaborate on the adaptation. Hays walked out on the project when Czinner told him of Brecht's invitation to Auden. It was not until April 1946 that a final Brecht/Auden script was copyrighted and a production planned which opened six months later on October 15, 1 946, at the Ethel Barrymore Theatre. The Elizabethan scholar and director, George Rylands, chose during rehearsals 61 62 Comparative Drama to return mainly to Webster's version of The Duchess and to credit Auden alone for the adaptation.2 There is no mention of Brecht in the playbill, in the New York Times press notices, or in reviews of the production which ran for forty-three per­ formances. Ralph Manheim's prefatory note to the recently published edition of The Duchess warns that nearly every aspect of the text-the collaborators' shares, the dates of composition and revision, the spelling of the titlc--offers puzzles and confusion almost impossible of certain solution.3 However, if we follow Brecht's draft plan for his "version" of Webster's play, it be­ comes apparent that his contribution to this "Adaptation for the Modern Stage"-as the Brecht/Hays manuscript was sub­ titled-was principally in the re-shaping of the Jacobean ver­ sion.4 There are several principal "deviations" (Brecht's term of some irony) from the 1623 qua,rto of Webster's Renaissance text. Brecht wrote new scenes depicting the Cyprian battlefield (Il.i) , the Cardinal's murder (ID.i) , the Duchess's death scene (III.v) ; he revised the play's introduction and conclusion (I, III) ; he transposed scenes from Webster's The Devil's Lawcase ( 1616-22) as well as from.John Ford's 'Tis Pity She's A Whore ( 1622-23) ; he refocused Webster's themes and character .mo­ tives to highlight historical, economic, and social concerns as he perceived·them in relation to Marxist theory. Rather than concern ourselves with the mechanics of what the Brecht/Hays text retains from Webster's play, or what is engrafted onto the Renaissance work, it is more· illuminating to consider the final shape . (or gestalt) of the adaptation. It is the intent of this paper . to suggest that Brecht's Hollywood years (1941-47) bear considerable influence on the so-called "puz­ zling" aspects of the adaptation, and to suggest that Brecht's treatment of Web.ster's text is influenced. by cinematic technique as well as by his concern for epic staging. n In Brecht: The Man and His Work, Martin Esslin lists six completed films produced between 1 922 and 1 954 in which Brecht collaborated in some way.5 In this country Brecht is credited with...