Brecht’s first play, Baal is rarely performed for two reasons. Firstly, it’s not very good. Secondly, it has a problem at the centre: the main character. Written when Brecht was just 20, Baal tells a story of a rebellious poet-musician who rejects the conventions of bourgeois society by choosing alcoholism and anarchy. Brecht was creating a new type of anti-hero - a character audiences would reject rather than sympathise with.

But it’s a hard balance to strike, and later in life he came to worry that, in fact, he had made his leading man a little too attractive. Baal’s charisma presents a major provocation: a misogynist, a sexual predator and a violent criminal - how can we justify telling the story of a man like that?

Our response is to “cancel” Baal.

He is a problematic character, so the only way to perform the play is to remove him.

Baal without Baal.

”A beautiful, surprising solution for Brecht's problematic debut. Dead Centre delve into the issue: what is a society to do with a figure like Baal? And shouldn't we take a good look at the society that produces these monsters? In doing so, they take complete freedom in their staging and pass it on to the magnificent Chinese ensemble of actors – resulting in consistently unexpected, humorous, visual, and meaningful scenes.”
Theaterrkant (Holland)

BRECHT’S FIRST PLAY is a co-production of Hong Kong Arts Festival, Beijing Repertory Theatre, Tempest Productions and Holland Festival. The production was supported by Culture Ireland. It premiered at Hong Kong Arts Festival on March 19th 2026.

Cast
JIN SHIJIA 金世佳
CUI WEI 崔玮
LI TENGFEI 李腾飞
MA ZHUOJUN 马卓君
ZHANG JIAHUAI 张加怀
TAN WEI 谭薇

Text by DEAD CENTRE and BERTOLT BRECHT
Translator & Dramaturg ZHAO HAN 赵晗

Stage Design HAN JIANG 韩江
Video SEBASTIEN DUPUOEY
Costume VIOLA ZHANG 大可
Light CHEN XIAJI 陈侠吉
Sound & Composition ANNIE JING YIN 安静

Fight Choreographer SHAO YAN 少言
Assistant Director ZHANG MINGYI 张铭益

Stage Manager SU QIAN 苏倩
Video Assistant LIU TANG 刘淌
Lighting Assistant LI MENG 李萌
Assistant Stage Manager ZHU RUOYU 朱若宇
Sound Design Assistant HU AN’AN 胡安安
Production Assistant FRANK LV 吕仁喆
Wardrobe & Makeup MENG SIYU 孟思妤

Direction BUSH MOUKARZEL & BEN KIDD
Producers HAN JIANG 韩江 and WANG SHIHUI

TOUR DATES

2026
June - Holland Festival, Amsterdam (NL)
Sibiu Festival (RO)

IMAGES
All photograhs: Ka Lam (on the paper)