The Great Fear and Misery of the Third Reich: Bertolt Brecht's poignant political play

Bertolt Bretch 's cult classicGrand-peur et misère du IIIe Reich comes to the Paris stage, directed by Julie Duclos. Playing at the Théâtre National de l'Odéon from January 11 to February 7, 2025, the play plunges us, through twenty poignant tableaux, into 1930s Germany, at the height of the rise of fascism.

Great Fear and Misery of the Third Reich is a major theatrical work by Bertolt Brecht, written in 1938. Composed of a series of independent scenes, it depicts daily life under the Nazi regime, highlighting omnipresent fear, propaganda and systematic repression.

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In some twenty tableaux, Brecht explores different aspects of German society under the Third Reich: terror in families, distrust between neighbors, oppression of workers and corruption of judges. Each scene in Great Fear and Misery of the Third Reich illustrates how the totalitarian regime infiltrates and destroys social bonds, sowing fear and isolation.

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Bretch 's play belongs to the register of epic theater, intended to provoke critical reflection in the spectator rather than mere emotional immersion. Written in 1938, Great Fear and Misery of the Third Reich sought to denounce the mechanisms of Nazi power while awakening the political conscience of its audience. The work was soon censored in Germany, but was nevertheless performed for the first time in Paris the same year it was published.