Freiheit & Democracy

What stories offer hope? What stands in the way? Can we deal with the demons of the past?  

Those are some of the questions that writer and playwright Bertolt Brecht was asking himself following World War II. In his 1947 bitter-cynical poem Der anachronistische Zug oder Freiheit und Democracy, he points to six 'plagues' that once again were rearing their heads. Contemporary Paul Dessau gave the poem a pumping beat and arranged a virtuoso piano part. In a contemporary choral setting with 50 singers (both professionals and amateurs), the piece sets the tone in this musical triptych.   

The audience then follows a brass band outside, for an 'anachronistic procession' past theatrical, plastic, dancing depictions of the plagues Stupidity, Murder, Fraud, Disease, Exploitation and Theft from Brecht's poem.   

Back in the auditorium, the evening concludes with a hopeful story. Giovanna Marini wrote a ballad in 2019 about the southern Italian village of Riace that welcomed 450 refugees and revived precisely because of it.   

• The Brussels Brecht-Eisler Choir already performed at Kaaitheater with Shouting Fence (2009) about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, WaanVlucht/SayNo (2014-2017) about 100 years since the First World War and Melancholie aan de 5 blokken (2020) about neglected social housing towers in Brussels. For this musical theatre production, the choir is collaborating with Brussels-based Voix des Garennes, Ictus and MetX.