Bertolt Brecht’s rarely performed masterpiece
An extraordinary theatre response to cancel culture

Bertolt Brecht, the towering and revolutionary 20th-century German dramatist, wrote plays to inform, not merely entertain. His work was didactic, challenging the complacency of society. Written at the age of 20 and rarely staged during the past century, Brecht’s first play Baal focuses on an obnoxious anti-hero who’s cynical, murderous and self-destructive. Obsessed with sex and alcohol, he finally dies alone and despised. In creating a character who invites rejection instead of sympathy, Brecht forces us to confront the dark side of human nature.

But how can this shocking character be portrayed for modern audiences without celebrating his revolting behaviour?

In this groundbreaking collaboration between two leading theatre companies, Ben Kidd and Bush Moukarzel, the Artistic Directors of the internationally renowned Irish theatre company Dead Centre, confront Baal ’s themes by literally deleting its central character from the stage in a nod to cancel culture. By blending drama with live video technology, Baal is blurred in real time, prompting us to look beyond his actions and at the rest of society, and ask whether cancel culture protects us or perpetuates harm. Does it really make us safer, or does it merely sweep problems under the carpet?

Surreal and out of control, Baal reveals the fragility of reason and civilised society, and the unpredictability of the modern world.

The Festival is proud to bring together Beijing Repertory Theater and Ireland’s award-winning Dead Centre, both celebrated for re-imagining classic dramas, to examine the power of the theatre to explore human and societal conflict.

Advance bookings will start at 10am on 16 October 2025