More than one critic has observed that whereas Piscator, the director, has
made his most lasting impression in the field of dramatic writing, the
lessons of Brecht, Germany's greatest modern playwright, have been most
deeply absorbed by directors, designers and actors. Partly, this is ex-
plained by the fact that the past fifty years have seen a merging of the
roles of dramatist and director, with Brecht the ultimate example of the
two in one; but equally it is because both men, in their striving for a
theatre that would reflect society in its totality, needed to master all the
resources at the stage's command. In the years from 1922, when his first
play reached the stage, up to his death in 1956 Brecht usually took some
active part in any production of his play that was within reach. Of them,
some twenty can be ascribed to him personally as director, usually working
in collaboration with others.

Towards the end of 1921 Brecht, at the age of twenty-three, was gaining
recognition as a dramatist: his first play Baal was due shortly to appear in
print and his second, Drums in the Night, had been accepted for perform-
ance by the Munich avant-garde theatre, Die Kammerspiele. But with
the publication of Baal deferred for fear of censorship and the production
of Drums in the Night slow to materialise, Brecht decided to force his luck
by abandoning his university studies in Munich and moving to Berlin. By
the time he returned to his home-town of Augsburg the following Easter
he had little to show for his initiative: no Berlin management had made a
firm commitment to stage any of his plays, and his first venture as a
director, Arnolt Bronnen's expressionist drama "Vatermord" ( Patricide) for
the Junge Bühne, had ended abruptly when two of the leading performers
left a rehearsal in protest at Brecht's caustic comments. ^I

However, Brecht left Berlin with many invaluable contacts established
and the first draft of a third play, In the Jungle, completed. Back in
Munich it was accepted by the Residenztheater, and then on 29 Septem-
ber 1922 Drums in the Night was finally presented by Otto Falkenberg at
the Kammerspiele. Brecht had persuaded Herbert Ihering, drama critic
of the Berliner Börsen-Courier, to attend and a few days later he wrote: