Fear and Misery of the Third Reich

“Distance makes it easier to see the mistakes people make when populism, propaganda, poverty and repression are rampant and sow fear. Then we will take a look—as Brecht puts it—at exactly how a people becomes manipulable, how totalitarianism is born, and how every individual in the nation contributes to it through their choices. And it does not matter whether we are talking about the 1930s or the 21st century. A century’s distance would indeed make it laughable, if the consequences were not so tragic,” says director Indra Roga. A “golden classic” of theatre history. Bertolt Brecht, a German playwright and leading figure in epic theatre, wrote the play Fear and Misery of the Third Reich/Furcht und Elend des Dritten Reiches between 1935 and 1938, while in exile in Denmark. He wrote it close on the heels of the events of the time, while working in radio and writing for newspapers. “An impressive mosaic of life in Nazi Germany” (Michael Billington, The Guardian) remains a prescient mirror today—everywhere people let fear into themselves and lose their inner freedom.