Fear and Misery of the Third Reich

“From a distance, it is easier to see the mistakes people make when populism, propaganda, poverty and repression run rampant and sow fear. Then we will take a look—as Brecht puts it—at exactly how a people become manipulable, how totalitarianism is born, and how every single person in the nation contributes to it through their choices. And it does not matter whether it is the 1930s or the 21st century. Viewed from a century away, it really would be funny if the consequences were not so tragic,” says director Indra Roga. A “golden classic” of theatre history. Bertolt Brecht, the German playwright and representative of 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 in the immediate aftermath of the events of the time, while working for radio and writing for newspapers. “An impressive mosaic of life in Nazi Germany” (Michael Billington, The Guardian) remains a prescient mirror today—wherever people let fear into themselves and lose their inner freedom.