In theatrical and academic circles, Barbara Brecht-Schall enjoyed a fearsome reputation. As the administrator of the estate of her father, the German playwright Bertolt Brecht, she was stubborn, controlling and confrontational, frustrating and provoking of directors, editors and translators alike.
Her unchanging view that “Anyone can perform papa’s pieces on one condition: not a word could be added” frequently led to court battles. In February, she halted a Munich production of Baal reset in postwar Vietnam, saying it had too little of “papa’s spirit”.
She once stopped an interpretation of Galileo by the director Einar Schleef, with the comment, “The audience does not need to see seven naked cardinals on the stage.” In 1994, she successfully sued the writer John Fuegi for defamation over his