Mr Puntila and his Man Matti
Encyclopedia
Mr Puntila and his Man Matti is an epic
comedy by the German modernist
playwright Bertolt Brecht
. It was written in 1940 and first performed in 1948.
The story describes the aristocratic
land-owner Puntila's relationship to his servant, Matti, as well as his daughter, Eva, who he wants to marry off to an Attaché. Eva herself loves Matti and so Puntila has to decide whether to marry his daughter to his driver or to an Attaché, while he also deals with a drinking problem.
In his essay "Notes on the Folk Play
" (written in 1940), Brecht warns that "naturalistic
acting is not enough in this case" and recommends an approach to staging that draws on the Commedia dell'Arte
. The central relationship between Mr Puntila and Matti—in which Puntila is warm, friendly and loving when drunk, but cold, cynical and penny-pinching when sober—echoes the relationship between the Tramp and the Millionaire in Charlie Chaplin
's City Lights
(1931).
in Finland
—the Finnish-Estonian playwright Hella Wuolijoki
—called The Sawdust Princess, a German translation of which Wuolijoki dictated to Margarete Steffin
during August 1940. Wuolijoki's work had the dramatic structure
of a well-made play
, which, Brecht concluded, hampered her achievement as a writer. Its protagonist
, Puntila (who is described as a "Finnish Bacchus
"), was based on a cousin of Wuolijoki's former husband called Roope Juntula. Juntula had become engaged with three village women and had also driven his Buick recklessly in the middle of the night to procure alcohol—both episodes that would be dramatised in Brecht's story. Wuolijoki suggested a collaboration with Brecht on an entry for a competition run by the Finnish Dramatists' League for a "people's play," whose deadline was to fall in October. The title page of Brecht's play describes it as "a people's play" that is "after stories and a draft play by Hella Wuolijoki." Brecht began work on his non-Aristotelian
version of the story on 2 September and finished a first draft three weeks later. Along with the structural transformation from dramatic to epic, Brecht described his main tasks in re-working Wuolijoki's original as: "to bring out the underlying farce
, dismantle the psychological discussions so as to make place for tales from Finnish popular life or statements of opinion, find a theatrical form for the master/man contradiction, and give the theme back its poetic
and comic aspects." Brecht gave his story a downbeat ending, in which Matti resigns himself to the impossibility of authentic human relationships across the divide of social class
, excepting the intoxicated illusions that alcohol
provides. He transformed the treatment of alcoholism
from a national problem for the Finnish, as it was dramatised in The Sawdust Princess, to its epic presentation as a farcical
aspect of the class war
. Wuolijoki translated Brecht's play into Finnish for the competition but it did not win a prize. The two authors agreed that Wuolijoki could develop the Finnish version for production throughout Scandinavia
(for which she renamed the protagonist "Johannes Iso-Heikkilä"), while Brecht could negotiate performances anywhere else, where the royalties would be split equally between them.
, where it opened on 5 June 1948, with scenic design by Teo Otto
. Leonard Steckel
played Puntila and Gustav Knuth
played Matti.
Brecht chose Puntila for the opening production of the first season of the Berliner Ensemble
, the world-renowned theatre company that he founded in 1949 in East Germany with his wife, Helene Weigel
. Brecht co-directed this production with Erich Engel
; Puntila was played initially by Leonard Steckel (as with the Zurich production), then by the comedian Curt Bois. The composer Paul Dessau
wrote a musical setting for the songs for this production, while Casper Neher designed the sets. Brecht introduced the linking "Puntila Song" and decided to discourage the audience's empathy
towards Puntila by means of defamiliarising mask
s for him and all the bourgeois
characters. This production was seen by Wuolijoki.
Epic theatre
Epic theatre was a theatrical movement arising in the early to mid-20th century from the theories and practice of a number of theatre practitioners, including Erwin Piscator, Vladimir Mayakovsky, Vsevolod Meyerhold and, most famously, Bertolt Brecht...
comedy by the German 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 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...
. It was written in 1940 and first performed in 1948.
The story describes the aristocratic
Aristocracy
Aristocracy , is a form of government in which a few elite citizens rule. The term derives from the Greek aristokratia, meaning "rule of the best". In origin in Ancient Greece, it was conceived of as rule by the best qualified citizens, and contrasted with monarchy...
land-owner Puntila's relationship to his servant, Matti, as well as his daughter, Eva, who he wants to marry off to an Attaché. Eva herself loves Matti and so Puntila has to decide whether to marry his daughter to his driver or to an Attaché, while he also deals with a drinking problem.
In his essay "Notes on the Folk Play
Folk play
Folk plays such as Hoodening, Guising, Mumming and Soul Caking are generally verse sketches performed in countryside pubs in European countries, private houses or the open air, at set times of the year such as the Winter or Summer solstices or Christmas and New Year...
" (written in 1940), Brecht warns that "naturalistic
Naturalism (theatre)
Naturalism is a movement in European drama and theatre that developed in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. It refers to theatre that attempts to create a perfect illusion of reality through a range of dramatic and theatrical strategies: detailed, three-dimensional settings Naturalism is a...
acting is not enough in this case" and recommends an approach to staging that draws on the Commedia dell'Arte
Commedia dell'arte
Commedia dell'arte is a form of theatre characterized by masked "types" which began in Italy in the 16th century, and was responsible for the advent of the actress and improvised performances based on sketches or scenarios. The closest translation of the name is "comedy of craft"; it is shortened...
. The central relationship between Mr Puntila and Matti—in which Puntila is warm, friendly and loving when drunk, but cold, cynical and penny-pinching when sober—echoes the relationship between the Tramp and the Millionaire in Charlie Chaplin
Charlie Chaplin
Sir Charles Spencer "Charlie" Chaplin, KBE was an English comic actor, film director and composer best known for his work during the silent film era. He became the most famous film star in the world before the end of World War I...
's City Lights
City Lights
City Lights is a 1931 American silent film and romantic comedy-drama written by, directed by, and starring Charlie Chaplin. It also has the leads Virginia Cherrill and Harry Myers. Although "talking" pictures were on the rise since 1928, City Lights was immediately popular. Today, it is thought of...
(1931).
Characters
- Puntila, a landowner
- Eva, his daughter
- Matti, his chauffeur
- The Waiter
- The Judge
- The Attaché
- The Vet
- Sly-Grog Emma
- The Chemist's Assistant
- The Milkmaid
- The Telephonist
- A Fat Man
- A Labourer
- The Red-haired Man
- The Weedy Man
- Red Surkkala
- His Four Children
- Laina, the cook
- Fina, the parlourmaid
- The Lawyer
- The Parson
- The Parson's Wife
- Woodcutters
Composition
Brecht's play is based on another by his host during his exileExile
Exile means to be away from one's home , while either being explicitly refused permission to return and/or being threatened with imprisonment or death upon return...
in Finland
Finland
Finland , officially the Republic of Finland, is a Nordic country situated in the Fennoscandian region of Northern Europe. It is bordered by Sweden in the west, Norway in the north and Russia in the east, while Estonia lies to its south across the Gulf of Finland.Around 5.4 million people reside...
—the Finnish-Estonian playwright Hella Wuolijoki
Hella Wuolijoki
Hella Wuolijoki was a Finnish writer of Estonian origin, known for her Niskavuori series.-Life & career:Wuolijoki was born in Helme, Estonia....
—called The Sawdust Princess, a German translation of which Wuolijoki dictated to Margarete Steffin
Margarete Steffin
Margarete Emilie Charlotte Steffin was a German actress and writer, one of Bertold Brecht's closest collaborators, as well as a prolific translator from Russian and Scandinavian languages....
during August 1940. Wuolijoki's work had the dramatic structure
Dramatic structure
Dramatic structure is the structure of a dramatic work such as a play or film. Many scholars have analyzed dramatic structure, beginning with Aristotle in his Poetics...
of a well-made play
Well-made play
The well-made play is a genre of drama from the 19th century that Eugène Scribe first codified and that Victorien Sardou developed. By the mid-19th century, it had entered into common use as a derogatory term...
, which, Brecht concluded, hampered her achievement as a writer. Its protagonist
Protagonist
A protagonist is the main character of a literary, theatrical, cinematic, or musical narrative, around whom the events of the narrative's plot revolve and with whom the audience is intended to most identify...
, Puntila (who is described as a "Finnish Bacchus
Dionysus
Dionysus was the god of the grape harvest, winemaking and wine, of ritual madness and ecstasy in Greek mythology. His name in Linear B tablets shows he was worshipped from c. 1500—1100 BC by Mycenean Greeks: other traces of Dionysian-type cult have been found in ancient Minoan Crete...
"), was based on a cousin of Wuolijoki's former husband called Roope Juntula. Juntula had become engaged with three village women and had also driven his Buick recklessly in the middle of the night to procure alcohol—both episodes that would be dramatised in Brecht's story. Wuolijoki suggested a collaboration with Brecht on an entry for a competition run by the Finnish Dramatists' League for a "people's play," whose deadline was to fall in October. The title page of Brecht's play describes it as "a people's play" that is "after stories and a draft play by Hella Wuolijoki." Brecht began work on his non-Aristotelian
Non-Aristotelian drama
Non-Aristotelian drama, or the 'epic form' of the drama, refers to a kind of play whose dramaturgical structure departs from the features of classical tragedy in favour of the features of the epic, as defined in each case by the ancient Greek philosopher Aristotle in his Poetics .The German...
version of the story on 2 September and finished a first draft three weeks later. Along with the structural transformation from dramatic to epic, Brecht described his main tasks in re-working Wuolijoki's original as: "to bring out the underlying farce
Farce
In theatre, a farce is a comedy which aims at entertaining the audience by means of unlikely, extravagant, and improbable situations, disguise and mistaken identity, verbal humour of varying degrees of sophistication, which may include word play, and a fast-paced plot whose speed usually increases,...
, dismantle the psychological discussions so as to make place for tales from Finnish popular life or statements of opinion, find a theatrical form for the master/man contradiction, and give the theme back its poetic
Poetry
Poetry is a form of literary art in which language is used for its aesthetic and evocative qualities in addition to, or in lieu of, its apparent meaning...
and comic aspects." Brecht gave his story a downbeat ending, in which Matti resigns himself to the impossibility of authentic human relationships across the divide of social class
Social class
Social classes are economic or cultural arrangements of groups in society. Class is an essential object of analysis for sociologists, political scientists, economists, anthropologists and social historians. In the social sciences, social class is often discussed in terms of 'social stratification'...
, excepting the intoxicated illusions that alcohol
Alcohol
In chemistry, an alcohol is an organic compound in which the hydroxy functional group is bound to a carbon atom. In particular, this carbon center should be saturated, having single bonds to three other atoms....
provides. He transformed the treatment of alcoholism
Alcoholism
Alcoholism is a broad term for problems with alcohol, and is generally used to mean compulsive and uncontrolled consumption of alcoholic beverages, usually to the detriment of the drinker's health, personal relationships, and social standing...
from a national problem for the Finnish, as it was dramatised in The Sawdust Princess, to its epic presentation as a farcical
Farce
In theatre, a farce is a comedy which aims at entertaining the audience by means of unlikely, extravagant, and improbable situations, disguise and mistaken identity, verbal humour of varying degrees of sophistication, which may include word play, and a fast-paced plot whose speed usually increases,...
aspect of the class war
Class conflict
Class conflict is the tension or antagonism which exists in society due to competing socioeconomic interests between people of different classes....
. Wuolijoki translated Brecht's play into Finnish for the competition but it did not win a prize. The two authors agreed that Wuolijoki could develop the Finnish version for production throughout Scandinavia
Scandinavia
Scandinavia is a cultural, historical and ethno-linguistic region in northern Europe that includes the three kingdoms of Denmark, Norway and Sweden, characterized by their common ethno-cultural heritage and language. Modern Norway and Sweden proper are situated on the Scandinavian Peninsula,...
(for which she renamed the protagonist "Johannes Iso-Heikkilä"), while Brecht could negotiate performances anywhere else, where the royalties would be split equally between them.
Production history
A theatrical production of the play became a priority for Brecht on his return from exile in 1947; he helped to direct its premiere at the Schauspielhaus ZürichSchauspielhaus Zürich
The Schauspielhaus Zürich is one of the most prominent and important theatres in the German-speaking world. It is also known as "Pfauenbühne" after its location on the Pfauen Square in Zürich, Switzerland. The large theatre has 750 seats...
, where it opened on 5 June 1948, with scenic design by Teo Otto
Teo Otto
Teo Otto was a Swiss stage designer. He trained in Kassel and Paris and in 1926 taught at the Bauhaus in Weimar. In 1928 he became an assistant at the Berlin Staatsoper...
. Leonard Steckel
Leonard Steckel
Leonard Steckel was a German actor and director of stage and screen. He began his career as a stage actor, and spent the duration of World War II in exile in Zürich, where he had gone to work at the Schauspielhaus...
played Puntila and Gustav Knuth
Gustav Knuth
Gustav Knuth was a German film actor. He appeared in 128 films between 1935 and 1982.-Selected filmography:* Friedemann Bach * Das Grosse Spiel * Die Mücke * Sissi...
played Matti.
Brecht chose Puntila for the opening production of the first season of the Berliner Ensemble
Berliner Ensemble
The Berliner Ensemble is a German theatre company established by playwright Bertolt Brecht and his wife, Helene Weigel in January 1949 in East Berlin...
, the world-renowned theatre company that he founded in 1949 in East Germany with his wife, Helene Weigel
Helene Weigel
Helene Weigel was a distinguished German actress. She was the second wife of Bertolt Brecht, and together they had a son Stefan Brecht and daughter Barbara Brecht-Schall .The daughter of a Jewish lawyer, she became a Communist Party member from 1930 and Artistic Director of the...
. Brecht co-directed this production with 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...
; Puntila was played initially by Leonard Steckel (as with the Zurich production), then by the comedian Curt Bois. The composer Paul Dessau
Paul Dessau
Paul Dessau was a German composer and conductor.- Biography :Dessau was born in Hamburg into a musical family...
wrote a musical setting for the songs for this production, while Casper Neher designed the sets. Brecht introduced the linking "Puntila Song" and decided to discourage the audience's empathy
Empathy
Empathy is the capacity to recognize and, to some extent, share feelings that are being experienced by another sapient or semi-sapient being. Someone may need to have a certain amount of empathy before they are able to feel compassion. The English word was coined in 1909 by E.B...
towards Puntila by means of defamiliarising mask
Mask
A mask is an article normally worn on the face, typically for protection, disguise, performance or entertainment. Masks have been used since antiquity for both ceremonial and practical purposes...
s for him and all the bourgeois
Bourgeoisie
In sociology and political science, bourgeoisie describes a range of groups across history. In the Western world, between the late 18th century and the present day, the bourgeoisie is a social class "characterized by their ownership of capital and their related culture." A member of the...
characters. This production was seen by Wuolijoki.
Sources
- Willett, John and Ralph Manheim, eds. 1994. Collected Plays: Six. By Bertolt BrechtBertolt 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...
. Bertolt Brecht: Plays, Poetry, Prose Ser. London: Methuen. ISBN 0413685802.