Message from the director

TBTB is deeply honored to bring our most recent Off-Broadway production of BRECHT ON BRECHT to The 15th BIRD International Theatre Festival — and to our dear friends and colleagues here in Tottori.

We first presented this revue over 21 years ago in the spring of 2002 – 8 months after 9/11. At that time,Brecht’s words resonated with our company, reaching through time to echo what we all were trying to process. We found ourselves asking the same questions Brecht had raised during his time of darkness during World War II – and the association between his time and ours both comforted and disturbed us.

Eighteen years later in 2020, as political divisiveness strained the fabric of our society, Brecht’s words once again drifted back into our minds, reminding us once again that humankind –while constantly evolving and with great potential – remains a species of habit.

And then came the pandemic…

Initially, it was our hope that a global crisis might force us to band together as one to fight the silent enemy that threatened to wipe out “our people, our families, ourselves”. But sadly, the pandemic has become another brick in the wall that continues to divide and separate us from each other.
Clearly, Brecht’s words are needed now more than ever.

This production serves a two-fold purpose: It tells Brecht’s story through his poems, songs, stories and plays while reminding us that the trials Brecht faced in his time remain alive and well in ours today. There is a haunting resonance in much of what you are about to experience, and it is not very hard to draw the parallels between Brecht’s time and ours.

It is said that the only path past grief is through it. It is our hope that this production will serve as a reminder that we have been down this road before – and that, despite our current time of darkness, the dawn is coming and the sun will shine once again.