8th edition of China Season

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“Brecht’s First Play” is a radical international reimagining of Bertolt Brecht’s Baal, conceived by Irish theatre-makers Ben Kidd and Bush Moukarzel of Dead Centre and a group of Chinese artists and actors from Beijing Repertory Theater.

By looking at cancel culture with a global perspective, the show will ask whether a society really does become safer when banishing anti-social elements. Or whether, as Brecht himself came to believe, when revising the play later in life, “it is society itself which is truly anti-social.”

“Baal” has rarely been staged for two reasons: it’s not a very good play, and its central character is deeply problematic. Written when Brecht was 18, it tells the story of a rebellious poet-musician who rejects bourgeois society through alcoholism and anarchy. Brecht aimed to create an anti-hero audiences would reject—not sympathise with. Today, Baal reads as a misogynist, sexual predator and violent criminal. How can we present such a figure within a contemporary moral framework?

Our response is to “cancel” Baal—is a creative act. On stage, two realities unfold: the play performed live by Chinese actors in a blue room studio, and a live video feed above, in which Baal is digitally blurred. If the character is the problem, the solution is to remove him. The production engages with how cancel culture operates—how societies expel transgressors to define “good” behaviour and protect the collective.

As the blue room fades into the cold forest where Baal dies, we realise: few characters in the play—or in life—never deserve to be blurred.

Brecht never visited China, but his encounter with Mei Lanfang’s Peking Opera shaped his Epic Theatre. The more we work on this piece, the clearer it becomes: only Chinese actors can fully channel Brecht’s essence today—his moral conviction, his Alienation Effect, his belief that theatre must interrogate society. By restaging this “not very good” play and cancelling its immoral protagonist, we aim to create a production where only behaviours our society deems acceptable remain.

A thought-provoking performance that challenges contemporary morality and the limits of tolerance.

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Adapted and Director by: Ben Kidd & Bush Moukarzel 

Producers: Shihui Weng, Han Jiang

Set design: Han Jiang

Visual design: Sébastien Dupouey

Lighting design: Chen Xiaji

Sound & interdisciplinary design: Annie Jing Yin

Costume design: Viola Zhang

Sound design / Audio engineer: Tian Dongyi

Script translator: Zhao Han

Revival Director / Assistant Director: Zhang Mingyi

Cast:

Shijia Jin – Baal / Brecht

Wei Cui – Mech

Tengfei Li – Piller

Zhuojun Ma – Emilie

Jiahuai Zhang – Johannes

Wei Tan – Sophie

Producers: Beijing Repertory Theatre, Tempest Projects

Co-producers: Hong Kong Arts Festival, Holland Festival, Sibiu International Theatre Festival

Original title of the performance: 诗人之死
China, Ireland