Saint Joan of the Stockyards

Saint Joan of the Stockyards
Written by	Bertolt Brecht
Date premiered	30 April 1959 (1959-04-30)
Place premiered	Deutsches Schauspielhaus, Hamburg
Original language	German
Subject	Capitalism and religion
Genre	Non-Aristotelian / Epic drama
Setting	Chicago

Saint Joan of the Stockyards (German: Die Heilige Johanna der Schlachthöfe) is a play written by the German modernist playwright Bertolt Brecht between 1929 and 1931, after the success of his musical The Threepenny Opera and during the period of his radical experimental work with the Lehrstücke. It is based on the musical that he co-authored with Elisabeth Hauptmann, Happy End (1929). In this version of the story of Joan of Arc, Brecht transforms her into "Joan Dark," a member of the "Black Straw Hats" (a Salvation Army-like group) in 20th-century Chicago. The play charts Joan's battle with Pierpont Mauler, the unctuous owner of a meat-packing plant. Like her predecessor, Joan is a doomed woman, a martyr and (initially, at least) an innocent in a world of strike-breakers, fat cats, and penniless workers. Like many of Brecht's plays it is laced with humor and songs as part of its epic dramaturgical structure.

The play was broadcast on Berlin Radio on the 11 April 1932, with Carola Neher as Joan and Fritz Kortner as Mauler. The cast also included Helene Weigel, Ernst Busch, Peter Lorre, Paul Bildt and Friedrich Gnass. The play did not receive its first theatrical production until the 30 April 1959, at the Deutsches Schauspielhaus in Hamburg, after Brecht's death. Brecht had asked Gustaf Gründgens to direct, with scenic design by Caspar Neher and music by Siegfried Franz. Hanna Hiob played Joan.

Brecht wrote two other versions of the Joan of Arc story: The Visions of Simone Machard (1942) and The Trial of Joan of Arc of Proven, 1431 (1952).

Characters

• Joan Dark, lieutenant in the Black Straw Hats
• Pierpont Mauler, meat king
• Cridle, a meat packer
• Graham, a meat packer
• Lennox, a meat packer
• Meyers, a meat packer
• Slift, a broker
• Mrs Luckerniddle
• Gloomb, a worker
• Paul Snyder, major in the Black Straw Hats
• Martha, a Black Straw Hat
• Jackson, a lieutenant in the Black Straw Hats
• Mulberry, a landlord
• A Waiter

• Meat Packers
• Wholesalers
• Stockbreeders
• Brokers
• Speculators
• Black Straw Hats
• Workers
• Labour Leaders
• The Poor
• Detectives
• Newspapermen
• Newsboys
• Soldiers
• Passers-by

References in popular culture

• In Benoît Jacquot's 2006 film, L'Intouchable, the main character, Jeanne (Le Besco), relinquishes the lead role of Saint Joan of the Stockyards to find her father in India.

Summary

• • Adapted from http://www.nytheatre.com/nytheatre/joan5307.htm by Anthony C.E. Nelson

St. Joan of Stockyards updates the tale of the young French saint to the 1920s, when the lines of manipulation through which people are controlled are a little more obvious. In a world where the mysteries of religion have begun to fade in favor of the overt power of commerce, Joan's faith begins to seem precious and misguided.

The drama in St. Joan begins with the capitalists who run the stockyards, in the person of scheming mega-tycoon Mauler, who executes a deal that will advance his position, while at the same time devastating the lives of the 50,000 workers whose livelihoods are in the stockyards. Enter Joan of the Black Hats, a Salvation Army type organization whose events draw dozens of workers to hear their song and prayers, but only as long as their soup holds out. Desperate to find a way to connect to the workers, Joan finagles a tour of the stockyards. She is stunned by the bestiality of the workers that she sees but does manage to stun Mauler with her simplicity and beauty. When a worker offers her a dangerous position in order to advance himself, she takes it, and finds herself trapped among the workers as she begins to see the corruption in all the larger institutions, including her own black hats.

The play holds to the point of view that communism is the only way for mankind to proceed fairly; either we all advance together or some of us go far while some of us go nowhere. It is interesting in this play that the communists are rather minor characters; their plots are thwarted because of the failure of the workers to move as one. Rather than hitting us over the head with a heroic communist hero, in St. Joan of the Stockyards Brecht simply shows us the world as it is without one. We would, he hoped, draw our own conclusions.

Sources

• Willett, John. 1959. The Theatre of Bertolt Brecht: A Study from Eight Aspects. London: Methuen. ISBN 041334360X.