Helene Weigel al timone del Berliner Ensemble

Not only was Helene Weigel the wife of Bertolt Brecht, but she was also his closest artistic partner. On the one hand, as the first epic actress ever, she became the on-stage embodiment of epic theatre theories; on the other, she was the co-founder of the Berliner Ensemble and she had been its administrative director for twenty-two years. This article aims at describing Weigel’s crucial role in the foundation of the Berliner Ensemble, and investigating the way she dealt with both the internal management of the theatre and its complicated relationship with the Socialist Unity Party of Germany. The ultimate purpose of this study is to prove that Weigel’s administrative work at the helm of the Berliner Ensemble was a necessary prerequisite for Brecht’s theatre to reach global celebrity.