Collected plays4

Volume four of "Brecht's Collected Plays" contains works from the 1930s, straddling fateful years in German political and cultural history - as well as Brecht's own life. "Round Heads and Pointed Heads" is a powerful political allegory on Nazi race policy and conditions in the Germany Brecht was forced to leave, while "Fear and Misery of the Third Reich" is a montage of short scenes describing life under Hitler between 1933 and 1938. "Senora Carrar's Rifles" is based on J.M. Synge's "Riders to the Sea", relocated by Brecht in the Spanish Civil War. "The Trial of Lucullus", a radio play, is a starkly poetic pacifist text, in which the Roman general is tried by the Underworld for his military triumphs.

Also included are two one-act plays - "Dansen" and "How Much is Your Iron?" - written for performance by amateurs in Scandinavia, where Brecht stayed until 1941.