The story of a charming, ruthlessly amoral young poet, Baal (1918) is Brecht’s first play and a passionate acceptance of the world in all its sordid grandeur (Martin Esslin). A Man’s A Man (1926), Brecht’s first excursion into epic theater, traces the terrifying transformation of the sweet, good Galy Gay into a bloodthirsty human fighting machine.
Galy reappears in the brief, sardonic Elephant Calf, a sort of coda. Powerful stage works in their own right, these three early plays also provide crucial insights into Brecht’s dramatic techniques and preoccupations before the decisive embrace of Marxism in 1928.