Haven Theatre’s Fear and Misery in the Third Reich: Brecht’s Ghost Warns Us About Fascist Dictatorship
“I notice she didn’t say ‘Heil Hitler’ any too loud either.” “This business here can’t last too long…. “ “In the long run, they can’t hold us intellectuals down too long….” “It’s no concern of ours. We’re Lutheran.”During the final scene, actors toss up a flurry of small leaflets with the message, “Say No to Fascism.” with pleas from Human Rights Watch, Black Lives Matter and Sister Song on the back. Actors stand on the perimeter of the stage area as the primary action proceeds in the center. Sometimes several different scenes take place on stage at one time. Fear and Misery is performed on an open rectangular stage (scenic design by Yu Shibagaki), surrounded by audience members seated in six or eight different seating areas and pits. (The bench seats are particularly uncomfortable for such a long production.) Original music is by Jeffrey Levin with sound design by Sarah D. Espinoza. Lighting is by Claire Chrzan, The costumes, in a muted gray/ green/brown color palette, are by Izumi Inaba. Fear and Misery in the Third Reich is an imperfect production but I suspect it will improve during its run. (And some judicious cuts will help.) It’s worth your time to see this rarely performed play by Brecht, a Marxist who left Germany just after Hitler took power in 1933. After WWII ended, he returned and lived in East Germany for the rest of his life. His most frequently performed plays are Mother Courage and Her Children, The Threepenny Opera, The Caucasian Chalk Circle and The Good Person of Szechwan. My favorite Brecht play is The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui, which had a terrific staging by Trap Door last March. Prop Thtr produced The Last Days of the Commune in October. Haven Theatre continues its staging of Fear and Misery in the Third Reich through March 11 at the Den Theatre’s newest space, the Janet Bookspan Theatre, 1331 N. Milwaukee Ave. Tickets are $18 for performances Thursday-Sunday.
Nancy S Bishop
Nancy S. Bishop is publisher and Stages editor of Third Coast Review. She’s a member of the American Theatre Critics Association and a 2014 Fellow of the National Critics Institute at the Eugene O’Neill Theater Center. You can read her personal writing on pop culture at nancybishopsjournal.com, and follow her on Twitter @nsbishop. She also writes about film, books, art, architecture and design.