In an absorbing illustrated lecture at the Studio Theatre, Edinburgh, as part of the Edinburgh international festival, Lebanese artists Lina Majdalanie and Rabih Mroué use the story of Bertolt Brecht's exile to examine displacement in our own era. The show, Four Walls and a Roof, runs until 17 August.
Brecht's 'cold execution' and the Huac era
Brecht termed the US government's actions during the House Un-American Activities Committee (Huac) era "cold execution." He referred to the way opponents could be murdered not by direct killing but by cutting them off from what kept them alive. In the cold war, waged without bullets, these cold executions were enacted, for example, on any blacklisted artist who could no longer work in Hollywood.
Brecht, seeing the writing on the wall, left his native Germany soon after the burning of the Reichstag in 1933. It took him several countries, eight years, and a journey across land and sea to reach the US. As Majdalanie and Mroué wryly point out, getting back to Europe after the US questioned his communist affiliations took only a day.
Personal journey from Beirut to Berlin
Accompanied by pianist Henrik Kairies singing songs by Brecht and Hanns Eisler, the pair use the playwright's life away from home as a way of asking questions about place and identity. As émigrés from Beirut to Berlin, they have a personal interest in the idea of homeland: however you define it, it means more than the four walls and a roof of the title.
Reading from their script in a casual, un-actorly way, they gently prod Brecht's story towards today. The Huac wanted yes-or-no certainty and did not allow the playwright to read his prepared statement. Had they heard his commentary on the early Nazi crackdown on free speech perhaps they would have spotted parallels with their own intolerance.
Parallels with today's far right
With the far right on the rise again, these parallels speak to us ever more pointedly. The show is at Studio theatre, Edinburgh, until 17 August.
