In “The Jungle of the Cities” (1927), Shlink, rich, yellow and old, and Garga, poor, white and young, are in a battle of life and death, applying all means available, with no rules, beyond moral. It is a battle for nothing. It can even turn into a feeling, one that is just as arbitrary: love. In this west-eastern battle, both sides focus their feelings and thoughts on the inscrutable opponent, joining their strengths for the annihilation –of the self or of the other. For Frank Castorf, what the older Brecht, like the Marxist critics, who believed there is no such thing as a battle “in itself”, saw as a flaw in his early work –the absence of a didactics, the use of an unreflected language- is what makes this Brecht’s most significant play today.
With: Hendrik Arnst, Rosalind Baffoe, Herbert Fritsch, Marc Hosemann, Irina Kastrinidis, Astrid Meyerfeldt, Milan Peschel, Jeanette Spassova, Volker Spengler and Joachim Tomaschewsky
Director: Frank Castorf
Stage Designer: Bert Neumann
Light Design: Lothar Baumgarte
Music: Steve Binetti
Dramaturgy: Jutta Wangemann
