NOTE:  The visual images and signs used in this production are typical of Epic Theatre and serve the purpose of locating, framing and commenting the scene.  The images are by Heartfield and were chosen by the playwright for inclusion.  To see a full-screen version of the artwork, just click on the thumbnail version.  The text in boxes are signs for the character of Brecht.  During the play, these graphics will be projected onto the stage. 
 

Act I, Prologue 

Playwright, director and political activist Bertolt Brecht, introduces the subject of this play, John Heartfield, as one of Europe's greatest artists. He credits Heartfield with creating the photographic art form of photomontage, an art form which also allows Heartfield to practice social criticism and to wage "one man's war against Hitler." Throughout the play Brecht acts as a narrator, performer and framing device in a technique common to Epic Theatre. 

Act I, Scene 1 

Graphic:

What's It All About?

Brecht and Piscator watch as Lena, Hannah, Dietrich, Wieland, and George enthusiastically sing the praises of communism. The performance is interrupted when Johnny runs in with the scenery he's made for the show. Johnny demands that the show be stopped so the scenery can be put up. The ensuing argument is finally stopped when Piscator actually asks the audience what should be done. 
Wieland hails the moment as the birth of Epic Theatre, while Piscator and Brecht vie for the honor of being named the creator of this theatrical form. Brecht sings of the power of theatre to seduce an audience's opinions.

At the end of the scene the "show" begins again, culminating in the ensemble's singing of the Internationale. 

Act 1, Scene 2 

Graphics:

Not All Quiet on the Western Front

As a young art student, Johnny is called to serve as a soldier for Kaiser Wilhelm in World War I. This scene allegorically explores the ways this experience affected Johnny, shaping his beliefs and values, 
by setting up a fantastical encounter between him and the Kaiser. In protest against the Kaiser's hatred of all things English, Johnny changes his name from Helmut Herzfeld to John Heartfield. This act of defiance symbolically marks the beginning of a life dedicated to social criticism and art. Using a technique typical of Epic Theatre, this "story" is told by Piscator playing the Kaiser and Dietrich as the German Officer. This technique is used throughout the play.

Act I, Scene 3 

Graphics:

Men are not born for citizenship –They must be made fit for it.

In Berlin between the wars Johnny begins his work as a photomontage artist and political activist. He develops a deep friendship with George Grosz and Hannah Hoch at the same time he develops himself as an artist. 
The comrades are young and believe wholeheartedly in their ability to make a difference in the world. 

Act I, Scene 4 

Graphic:

Johnny's brother, Wieland, is arrested and beaten by the police for publishing "Everyman His Own Football," a paper that supported and disseminated communist ideology as well as questioning the current regime. 
Dietrich sings of the work the artists are doing and of the dangers of that work for the individuals involved. 

Act I, Scene 5 

Graphic: 

Property and Blood have been sacrificed incessantly for the past 5 years!

Make Way for the Worker!

Johnny's ideals and aesthetics coalesce into a single clear goal--to change the world through his art.. 

Act I, Scene 6 

Graphic: 

Don't Go Looking for Trouble, Trouble Will Always Find You

Johnny and Lena become involved but the romance is not so sweet. Lena sings of her concerns about her relationship  but ultimately decides she does want to be with Johnny. When she tells Johnny that she is pregnant, he is angry and asks how Lena could think of having children in a country of starving children. After he has stormed off, Wieland explains that he and Johnny were abandoned by their parents in a hut outside of Salzburg. At the time of the abandonment, Johnny (the eldest) was only ten years old. 

Act I, Scene 7 

Graphics:

The Problem of Politics is to Keep the Businessman from Ruling

Things Will Never Be So Good Again!

Brecht explains the harsh economic facts of Germany in the early 1920s--an inflation so brutal that the Deutsche Mark was virtually worthless. The facts are made real in a song by Piscator and Dietrich. 
In the midst of these economic horrors, Johnny's artwork attracts the attention of the advertising industry. Despite the money he is offered, Johnny refuses to use his art for commercial gain. 

Act I, Scene 8 

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In 1932 the Nazi Party (known as the National Socialists) were voted into power by an overwhelming majority. Life had become not only hard but actively dangerous for artists, communists, Jews, gypsies, and homosexuals. 

Act I, Scene 9 

Graphics: 

Is Friendship More Permanent than Political Opinions?

Love is the foolish over-estimation of the minimal difference between one sexual object and another.

Unable to deal with the abuse and harassment anymore, George decides to leave Germany for the United States. He encourages both Johnny and Wieland to leave as well. 
Lena also decides to take her children and leave Germany. She says she understands that Johnny must continue to fight while Johnny rationalizes that romance was only a distraction from the real work. 

Act I, Scene 10 

Graphic:

Johnny tells of the SS breaking into his apartment in 1933 and of his narrow escape that night. Even Johnny realized that he had to leave and so he walked across the Sudetan Mountains to Czechoslovakia. The ensemble sings "The Exiles Tango," interspersing it with the reading of lists of names of those forced to leave their home, Germany, because of the Nazi Party. 

Go to Act II

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