In The Jungle of Cities
Encyclopedia
In The Jungle of Cities (Im Dickicht der Städte) is a play
by the German
modernist
playwright
Bertolt Brecht
. Written between 1921 and 1924, it received its first theatrical production under the title In the Jungle (Im Dickicht) at the Residenztheater
in Munich
, opening on 9 May 1923. This production was directed by Erich Engel
, with set-design
by Caspar Neher
. The cast included Otto Wernicke
as Shlink the lumber dealer, Erwin Faber
as George Garga, and Maria Koppenhöfer
as his sister Mary.
The Jungle was produced at Max Reinhardt
's Deutsches Theater
in Berlin
, where Brecht had been employed as a dramaturg
. The production opened on 29 October 1924, with the same director and scenographer
but in a cut version with a new prologue
(given below) and under the title Jungle: Decline of a Family (Dickicht: Untergang einer Familie). Fritz Kortner
played Shlink and Walter Frank played George, with Franziska Kinz, Paul Bildt
, Mathias Wieman
, and Gerda Müller
also in the cast. Willett and Manheim report that this production "was not a success".
Brecht revised the play to produce (virtually) its final form—now with the In The Jungle of Cities title and "the fight between two men in the great city of Chicago" for a subtitle—in 1927, when it was produced at the Hessisches Landestheater in Darmstadt
, directed by Carl Ebert
.
In the prologue to the play, Brecht informs his audience that:
The play opens with Shlink and his accomplices, notably Skinny, The Worm, and The Baboon. He tries to buy Garga's opinion on a book, but Garga refuses to sell it. As a result, Shlink declares war on him and starts to destroy the bookshop. Maynes arrives and soon fires Garga. After Garga leaves, Shlink pays for the damage and departs.
Garga arrives at the lumberyard, and Shlink makes himself Garga's servant. Garga accepts the challenge and immediately makes the business sell the same lot of lumber twice, thereby cheating one of the buyers. He invites a Salvation Army
Officer into the room and promises to donate the entire building to him if the Officer will allow them to spit in his face. Shlink then goes over to the officer and spits at him.
Shlink goes to live with The Worm. Garga's sister Marie moves in with him, having fallen in love. Garga's girlfriend Jane is also there, working as a whore for The Baboon. Soon thereafter Garga decides to go away to Tahiti
. Shlink arrives Garga's house and offers to work for them and provide them with money if they give him a place to stay.
Although they all think that Garga has gone to Tahiti
, it turns out that he never left Chicago
. He soon goes to the hotel where Shlink is staying. When he learns that Marie is living there, he is upset that Shlink has taken over both his sister and his family. Garga starts to try to make Shlink marry Marie, but she becomes afraid and runs to Manky, who happily agrees to take her. Garga also makes Shlink give him all of his remaining money.
Meanwhile, Garga has returned home and married his former girlfriend Jane after stealing her away from The Baboon. His family is living very nicely on the money that Shlink gave him. While celebrating the marriage dinner, Shlink arrives with a letter informing him that he will have to go to jail for three years for making a fraudulent lumber deal. Garga decides to go to jail instead even though it will destroy his family. When his mother hears this, she leaves the family. Garga writes a letter that accuses Shlink of raping his sister and violating his wife. He puts the letter into his pocket and tells his father that he will give the police the letter on the day that they release him from prison.
Three years later Garga gives the police the letter. Shlink is forced to flee from his new lumber yard that he has built during those years. Garga takes some men and visits the Chinese Hotel in order to show them what has become of his sister and wife. Both Marie and Jane are now prostitutes in the hotel, and Jane refuses to even consider returning with Garga. Shlink manages to return to the hotel after setting fire to his lumber yard. He tells Garga that the fight is not yet over and that they need to flee immediately.
In a tent outside of a Chicago
, Garga realizes that the fight has been about trying to touch another person by hating them. However, he decides that the fight has gone on too long. Garga proclaims himself the victor and leaves. Marie arrives and watches as Shlink dies in the tent. She defends his dead body from an angry mob that has arrived to lynch him.
Back in Chicago
, Garga sells off the burnt down lumber yard to Manky. Garga decides to go to New York
.
and Otto Wernicke
in the central roles of Garga and Schlink. The premiere was interrupted several times by Nazis, hooting, whistling and throwing stink bombs at the actors on the stage. It caused a scandal that became an anticipated part of premieres of Brecht's plays and musicals during the Weimar Republic
. The production was directed by Erich Engel — his first Brecht production in what was to become a long association with Brecht, lasting up to the time of Brecht's death in 1956. During a pause before the beginning of rehearsals, Brecht, Engel and Faber collaborated with Karl Valentin
and other Munich actors to make a short, comic film, Mysteries of a Barbershop
.
directed a Living Theatre production of the play in New York
, opening on 16 December 1960. In October 1991, Ruth Berghaus
directed the play at the Thalia Theater
in Hamburg
as part of a series of 'related texts', as she called them (which also included Büchner
's Danton's Death
).
The world-famous German director, Peter Stein
directed a landmark production of Im Dickicht der Städte at the Munich Kammerspiele
in 1968, when he was Assistant Director there, and before Stein founded the very influential Schaubühne am Halleschen Ufer in West Berlin
a few years later.
Al Pacino
starred in a short-lived production at the Circle in the Square Theatre
in New York
in 1979, directed by famous Romanian director Liviu Ciulei
.
Play (theatre)
A play is a form of literature written by a playwright, usually consisting of scripted dialogue between characters, intended for theatrical performance rather than just reading. There are rare dramatists, notably George Bernard Shaw, who have had little preference whether their plays were performed...
by the German
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
modernist
Modernism
Modernism, in its broadest definition, is modern thought, character, or practice. More specifically, the term describes the modernist movement, its set of cultural tendencies and array of associated cultural movements, originally arising from wide-scale and far-reaching changes to Western society...
playwright
Playwright
A playwright, also called a dramatist, is a person who writes plays.The term is not a variant spelling of "playwrite", but something quite distinct: the word wright is an archaic English term for a craftsman or builder...
Bertolt Brecht
Bertolt Brecht
Bertolt Brecht was a German poet, playwright, and theatre director.An influential theatre practitioner of the 20th century, Brecht made equally significant contributions to dramaturgy and theatrical production, the latter particularly through the seismic impact of the tours undertaken by the...
. Written between 1921 and 1924, it received its first theatrical production under the title In the Jungle (Im Dickicht) at the Residenztheater
Residenz Theatre
The Residence Theatre or New Residence Theatre of the Residence in Munich was built from 1950 to 1951 by Karl Hocheder...
in Munich
Munich
Munich The city's motto is "" . Before 2006, it was "Weltstadt mit Herz" . Its native name, , is derived from the Old High German Munichen, meaning "by the monks' place". The city's name derives from the monks of the Benedictine order who founded the city; hence the monk depicted on the city's coat...
, opening on 9 May 1923. This production was directed by Erich Engel
Erich Engel
Erich Engel was a German film and theatre director.- Biography :Engel was born in Hamburg, where later he studied at the School of Applied Arts...
, with set-design
Scenic design
Scenic design is the creation of theatrical, as well as film or television scenery. Scenic designers have traditionally come from a variety of artistic backgrounds, but nowadays, generally speaking, they are trained professionals, often with M.F.A...
by Caspar Neher
Caspar Neher
Caspar Neher was an Austrian-German scenographer and librettist, known principally for his career-long working relationship with Bertolt Brecht.Neher was born in Augsburg...
. The cast included Otto Wernicke
Otto Wernicke
Otto Karl Robert Wernicke was a German actor. He was best known for his role as police inspector Karl Lohmann in the two Fritz Lang films M and The Testament of Dr. Mabuse. He was the first one to portray Captain Smith in the first "official" Titanic film.Wernicke was married to a Jewish woman...
as Shlink the lumber dealer, Erwin Faber
Erwin Faber
Erwin Faber was a leading actor in Munich and later throughout Germany, beginning after World War I, and through the late-1970's, when he was still performing at the Residenz Theatre...
as George Garga, and Maria Koppenhöfer
Maria Koppenhöfer
-Selected filmography:* Unheimliche Geschichten * Joan of Arc * The Mountain Calls * Kora Terry * Bismarck * The Heart of a Queen -External links:...
as his sister Mary.
The Jungle was produced at Max Reinhardt
Max Reinhardt
----Max Reinhardt was an Austrian theater and film director and actor.-Biography:...
's Deutsches Theater
Deutsches Theater
The Deutsches Theater in Berlin is a well-known German theatre. It was built in 1850 as Friedrich-Wilhelm-Städtisches Theater, after Frederick William IV of Prussia. Located on Schumann Street , the Deutsches Theater consists of two adjoining stages that share a common, classical facade...
in Berlin
Berlin
Berlin is the capital city of Germany and is one of the 16 states of Germany. With a population of 3.45 million people, Berlin is Germany's largest city. It is the second most populous city proper and the seventh most populous urban area in the European Union...
, where Brecht had been employed as a dramaturg
Dramaturge
A dramaturge or dramaturg is a professional position within a theatre or opera company that deals mainly with research and development of plays or operas...
. The production opened on 29 October 1924, with the same director and scenographer
Scenographer
A scenographer develops the appearance of a stage design, a TV or movie set, a gaming environment, a trade fair exhibition design or a museum experience exhibition design. The term originated in theater...
but in a cut version with a new prologue
Prologue
A prologue is an opening to a story that establishes the setting and gives background details, often some earlier story that ties into the main one, and other miscellaneous information. The Greek prologos included the modern meaning of prologue, but was of wider significance...
(given below) and under the title Jungle: Decline of a Family (Dickicht: Untergang einer Familie). Fritz Kortner
Fritz Kortner
Fritz Kortner was an Austrian-born stage and film actor and theatre director.Kortner was born in Vienna as Fritz Nathan Kohn. He studied at the Vienna Academy of Music and Dramatic Art. After graduating, he joined Max Reinhardt in Berlin in 1911 and then Leopold Jessner in 1916. Also in that year...
played Shlink and Walter Frank played George, with Franziska Kinz, Paul Bildt
Paul Bildt
Paul Hermann Bildt was a German film actor. He appeared in over 180 films between 1910 and 1956. He was born and died in Berlin, Germany.- Selected filmography :* Ludwig II: Glanz und Ende eines Königs...
, Mathias Wieman
Mathias Wieman
Mathias Wieman was a German stage-performer, silent-and-sound motion picture actor.-Early life:...
, and Gerda Müller
Gerda Muller
Gerda Muller is a Venezuelan fencer. She competed in the women's individual foil event at the 1952 Summer Olympics.-References:...
also in the cast. Willett and Manheim report that this production "was not a success".
Brecht revised the play to produce (virtually) its final form—now with the In The Jungle of Cities title and "the fight between two men in the great city of Chicago" for a subtitle—in 1927, when it was produced at the Hessisches Landestheater in Darmstadt
Darmstadt
Darmstadt is a city in the Bundesland of Hesse in Germany, located in the southern part of the Rhine Main Area.The sandy soils in the Darmstadt area, ill-suited for agriculture in times before industrial fertilisation, prevented any larger settlement from developing, until the city became the seat...
, directed by Carl Ebert
Carl Ebert
Carl Ebert was a German theatre and opera producer and administrator.-Biography:He worked as an actor and theatre director in Germany from 1915 to 1927, directing Brecht's In The Jungle of Cities in Darmstadt in 1927...
.
In the prologue to the play, Brecht informs his audience that:
- "You are in ChicagoChicagoChicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...
in 1912. You are about to witness an inexplicable wrestling match between two men and observe the downfall of a family that has moved from the prairies to the jungle of the big city. Don't worry your heads about the motives for the fight, concentrate on the stakes. Judge impartially the technique of the contenders, and keep your eyes fixed on the finish."
Character list
- Shlink — Chinese timber dealer
- George Garga — Book clerk
- John Garga — George Garga's father
- Mae Garga — George Garga's mother
- Marie Garga
- Jane Larry — prostitute
- Skinny — Chinese clerk
- Collie Couch (The Baboon) — pimp
- J. Finnay (The Worm) — pimp
- Pat Manky — Ship's first mate
- Salvation Army Officer
- The Snubnose
- The Saloonkeeper
- C. Maynes
Plot summary
George Garga and Shlink are portrayed as two metaphorical boxers locked in a fight for the entirety of the play. Shlink is a wealthy lumber merchant and Garga is a book clerk.The play opens with Shlink and his accomplices, notably Skinny, The Worm, and The Baboon. He tries to buy Garga's opinion on a book, but Garga refuses to sell it. As a result, Shlink declares war on him and starts to destroy the bookshop. Maynes arrives and soon fires Garga. After Garga leaves, Shlink pays for the damage and departs.
Garga arrives at the lumberyard, and Shlink makes himself Garga's servant. Garga accepts the challenge and immediately makes the business sell the same lot of lumber twice, thereby cheating one of the buyers. He invites a Salvation Army
Salvation Army
The Salvation Army is a Protestant Christian church known for its thrift stores and charity work. It is an international movement that currently works in over a hundred countries....
Officer into the room and promises to donate the entire building to him if the Officer will allow them to spit in his face. Shlink then goes over to the officer and spits at him.
Shlink goes to live with The Worm. Garga's sister Marie moves in with him, having fallen in love. Garga's girlfriend Jane is also there, working as a whore for The Baboon. Soon thereafter Garga decides to go away to Tahiti
Tahiti
Tahiti is the largest island in the Windward group of French Polynesia, located in the archipelago of the Society Islands in the southern Pacific Ocean. It is the economic, cultural and political centre of French Polynesia. The island was formed from volcanic activity and is high and mountainous...
. Shlink arrives Garga's house and offers to work for them and provide them with money if they give him a place to stay.
Although they all think that Garga has gone to Tahiti
Tahiti
Tahiti is the largest island in the Windward group of French Polynesia, located in the archipelago of the Society Islands in the southern Pacific Ocean. It is the economic, cultural and political centre of French Polynesia. The island was formed from volcanic activity and is high and mountainous...
, it turns out that he never left Chicago
Chicago
Chicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...
. He soon goes to the hotel where Shlink is staying. When he learns that Marie is living there, he is upset that Shlink has taken over both his sister and his family. Garga starts to try to make Shlink marry Marie, but she becomes afraid and runs to Manky, who happily agrees to take her. Garga also makes Shlink give him all of his remaining money.
Meanwhile, Garga has returned home and married his former girlfriend Jane after stealing her away from The Baboon. His family is living very nicely on the money that Shlink gave him. While celebrating the marriage dinner, Shlink arrives with a letter informing him that he will have to go to jail for three years for making a fraudulent lumber deal. Garga decides to go to jail instead even though it will destroy his family. When his mother hears this, she leaves the family. Garga writes a letter that accuses Shlink of raping his sister and violating his wife. He puts the letter into his pocket and tells his father that he will give the police the letter on the day that they release him from prison.
Three years later Garga gives the police the letter. Shlink is forced to flee from his new lumber yard that he has built during those years. Garga takes some men and visits the Chinese Hotel in order to show them what has become of his sister and wife. Both Marie and Jane are now prostitutes in the hotel, and Jane refuses to even consider returning with Garga. Shlink manages to return to the hotel after setting fire to his lumber yard. He tells Garga that the fight is not yet over and that they need to flee immediately.
In a tent outside of a Chicago
Chicago
Chicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...
, Garga realizes that the fight has been about trying to touch another person by hating them. However, he decides that the fight has gone on too long. Garga proclaims himself the victor and leaves. Marie arrives and watches as Shlink dies in the tent. She defends his dead body from an angry mob that has arrived to lynch him.
Back in Chicago
Chicago
Chicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...
, Garga sells off the burnt down lumber yard to Manky. Garga decides to go to New York
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
.
Premiere Interrupted by Nazis
In the Jungle of Cities premiered at the Residenz Theater (Residenztheater) in Munich on 9 May 1923, starring Erwin FaberErwin Faber
Erwin Faber was a leading actor in Munich and later throughout Germany, beginning after World War I, and through the late-1970's, when he was still performing at the Residenz Theatre...
and Otto Wernicke
Otto Wernicke
Otto Karl Robert Wernicke was a German actor. He was best known for his role as police inspector Karl Lohmann in the two Fritz Lang films M and The Testament of Dr. Mabuse. He was the first one to portray Captain Smith in the first "official" Titanic film.Wernicke was married to a Jewish woman...
in the central roles of Garga and Schlink. The premiere was interrupted several times by Nazis, hooting, whistling and throwing stink bombs at the actors on the stage. It caused a scandal that became an anticipated part of premieres of Brecht's plays and musicals during the Weimar Republic
Weimar Republic
The Weimar Republic is the name given by historians to the parliamentary republic established in 1919 in Germany to replace the imperial form of government...
. The production was directed by Erich Engel — his first Brecht production in what was to become a long association with Brecht, lasting up to the time of Brecht's death in 1956. During a pause before the beginning of rehearsals, Brecht, Engel and Faber collaborated with Karl Valentin
Karl Valentin
Karl Valentin was a Bavarian comedian, cabaret performer, clown, author and film producer. He had significant influence on German Weimar culture...
and other Munich actors to make a short, comic film, Mysteries of a Barbershop
Mysteries of a Barbershop
Mysteries of a Barbershop is a comic, slapstick German film of 33 minutes, created by Bertolt Brecht, directed by Erich Engel, and starring the Munich cabaret clown Karl Valentin and leading stage actor Erwin Faber...
.
Famous Productions
Judith MalinaJudith Malina
Judith Malina is an American theater and film actress, writer, and director, who was one of the founders of The Living Theatre.-Early life:...
directed a Living Theatre production of the play in New York
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
, opening on 16 December 1960. In October 1991, Ruth Berghaus
Ruth Berghaus
Ruth Berghaus was a German choreographer and opera and theatre director.Berghaus was born in Dresden and studied Expressionist dance and Dance direction with Gret Palucca there and was an advanced student at the German Academy of Arts in Berlin, at least part of the time under Walter Felsenstein -...
directed the play at the Thalia Theater
Thalia Theater (Hamburg)
The Thalia Theater is one of the three state-owned theatres in Hamburg, Germany. It was founded in 1843 by Charles Maurice Schwartzenberger and named after the muse Thalia...
in Hamburg
Hamburg
-History:The first historic name for the city was, according to Claudius Ptolemy's reports, Treva.But the city takes its modern name, Hamburg, from the first permanent building on the site, a castle whose construction was ordered by the Emperor Charlemagne in AD 808...
as part of a series of 'related texts', as she called them (which also included Büchner
Georg Büchner
Karl Georg Büchner was a German dramatist and writer of poetry and prose. He was the brother of physician and philosopher Ludwig Büchner. Büchner's talent is generally held in great esteem in Germany...
's Danton's Death
Danton's Death
Danton's Death was the first play written by Georg Büchner, set during the French Revolution.-History:Georg Büchner wrote his works in the period between Romanticism and Realism in the so-called Vormärz era in German history and literature...
).
The world-famous German director, Peter Stein
Peter Stein
Peter Stein is a critically acclaimed German theatre and opera director who established himself at the Schaubühne am Lehniner Platz, a company that he brought to the forefront of German theatre....
directed a landmark production of Im Dickicht der Städte at the Munich Kammerspiele
Munich Kammerspiele
The Munich Kammerspiele is a successful German language theatre in Munich. The Schauspielhaus in the Maximilianstrasse is the major stage.-History:...
in 1968, when he was Assistant Director there, and before Stein founded the very influential Schaubühne am Halleschen Ufer in West Berlin
West Berlin
West Berlin was a political exclave that existed between 1949 and 1990. It comprised the western regions of Berlin, which were bordered by East Berlin and parts of East Germany. West Berlin consisted of the American, British, and French occupation sectors, which had been established in 1945...
a few years later.
Al Pacino
Al Pacino
Alfredo James "Al" Pacino is an American film and stage actor and director. He is famous for playing mobsters, including Michael Corleone in The Godfather trilogy, Tony Montana in Scarface, Alphonse "Big Boy" Caprice in Dick Tracy and Carlito Brigante in Carlito's Way, though he has also appeared...
starred in a short-lived production at the Circle in the Square Theatre
Circle in the Square Theatre
The Circle in the Square Theatre is a legitimate Broadway theatre in midtown Manhattan on 50th Street in the Paramount Plaza building.The original Circle in the Square was founded by Paul Libin, Theodore Mann and Jose Quintero in 1951 and was located at 5 Sheridan Square in Greenwich Village...
in New York
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
in 1979, directed by famous Romanian director Liviu Ciulei
Liviu Ciulei
Liviu Ciulei was a Romanian theater and film director, film writer, actor, architect, educator, costume and set designer. During a career spanning over 50 years, he was described by Newsweek as "one of the boldest and most challenging figures on the international scene".-Biography:Born in...
.
Works cited
- Brecht, BertoltBertolt BrechtBertolt Brecht was a German poet, playwright, and theatre director.An influential theatre practitioner of the 20th century, Brecht made equally significant contributions to dramaturgy and theatrical production, the latter particularly through the seismic impact of the tours undertaken by the...
. 1927. In the Jungle of Cities. Trans. Gerhard Nellhaus. In Collected Plays: One. Ed. John Willett and Ralph Manheim. Bertolt Brecht: Plays, Poetry and Prose Ser. London: Methuen, 1970. ISBN 041603280X. p. 117–178. - Meech, Tony. 1994. "Brecht's Early Plays." In Thomson and Sacks (1994, 43–55).
- McDowell, W. Stuart. 2000. "Acting Brecht: The Munich Years," The Brecht Sourcebook, Carol Martin, Henry Bial, editors (Routledge) p. 71–83. ISBN 0203979559.
- McDowell, W. Stuart. 1977. "A Brecht-Valentin Production: Mysteries of a Barbershop", W. Stuart McDowell, Performing Arts Journal, Vol. 1, No. 3 (Winter), pp. 5.
- Thomson, Peter and Glendyr Sacks, eds. 1994. The Cambridge Companion to Brecht. Cambridge Companions to Literature Ser. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0521414466.
- Willett, JohnJohn WillettJohn Willett was a British translator and a scholar who is remembered for translating the work of Bertolt Brecht into English.-Early life:Willett was educated at Winchester and Christ Church, Oxford...
. 1967. The Theatre of Bertolt Brecht: A Study from Eight Aspects. Third rev. ed. London: Methuen, 1977. ISBN 041334360X. - Willett, JohnJohn WillettJohn Willett was a British translator and a scholar who is remembered for translating the work of Bertolt Brecht into English.-Early life:Willett was educated at Winchester and Christ Church, Oxford...
and Ralph ManheimRalph ManheimRalph Frederick Manheim was an American translator of German and French literature, as well as occasional works from Dutch, Polish and Hungarian...
. 1970. Introduction and Editorial Note on the Text. In Collected Plays: One by Bertolt Brecht. Ed. John Willett and Ralph Manheim. Bertolt Brecht: Plays, Poetry and Prose Ser. London: Methuen. ISBN 041603280X. p.vii–xvii and 441–449. - Willett, John and Ralph Manheim. 1979. Introduction and Editorial Notes. Collected Plays: Two by Bertolt Brecht. Bertolt Brecht: Plays, Poetry, Prose Ser. London: Methuen, 1994. ISBN 0413685608.