Batty Does Brecht

              Barb,      Steve,    Austin,       Collen,          Ken,              Julie,           Rolf,            Batty
This is possibly the only photo of the complete cast of the one-act play The Elephant Calf by Bertholt Brecht, as done by my high school in 1968. This one-act was taken from Brecht’s early play Man Equals Man. I even got to sing in it (“Wipe your Jack Boots Johnny”) but otherwise I can’t remember the play at all.

Brecht was an unapologetic lefty and how we got away with performing this absurdity still mystifies me. Brecht has been out of favor in the USA for a long time but a revival of his Irresistible Rise of Arturo Ui is currently a hit on Broadway.