Back From the Dead. "Drums in the Night" by Bertolt Brecht. Brink Productions and State Theatre Company South Australia [review]

Abstract

"Drums in the Night", written in the early 1920s when the playwright himself was only just out of his teens, has many of the elements of the later, more famous works. Featuring a simple, fable-like plot, satiric comment on corrupt power and served with a mix of music, songs and comic banter, this turbulent drama tells the story of Andreas Kragler, a soldier in the First World War, who comes back from the dead to find Anna, his betrothed, is about to marry Murk (William Allert), an opportunist young cad who is keenly currying favour with her father, Herr Balicke, (Michael Habib) a war profiteer and all-round class villain.