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Introduction

In The Jungle of Cities (Im Dickicht der Städte) is a play by the German modernist playwright Bertolt Brecht. Written between 1921 and 1924, it received its first theatrical production under the title In the Jungle (Im Dickicht) at the Residenztheater in Munich, opening on the 9th May, 1923. This production was directed by Erich Engel, with set-design by Caspar Neher. The cast included Otto Wernicke as Shlink the lumber dealer, Erwin Faber as George Garga, and Maria Koppenhöfer as his sister Mary. The Jungle was produced at Max Reinhardt's Deutsches Theater in Berlin, where Brecht had been employed as a dramaturg. The production opened on the 29th October, 1924, with the same director and scenographer but in a cut version with a new prologue (given below) and under the title Jungle: Decline of a Family (Dickicht: Untergang einer Familie). Fritz Kortner played Shlink and Walter Frank played George, with Franziska Kinz, Paul Bildt, Mathias Wieman, and Gerda Müller also in the cast. Willett and Manheim report that this production "was not a success".^[1]

Brecht revised the play to produce (virtually) its final form—now with the In The Jungle of Cities title and "the fight between two men in the great city of Chicago" for a subtitle—in 1927, when it was produced at the Hessisches Landestheater in Darmstadt, directed by Carl Ebert.^[2]

In the prologue to the play, Brecht informs his audience that:

"You are in Chicago in 1912. You are about to witness an inexplicable wrestling match between two men and observe the downfall of a family that has moved from the prairies to the jungle of the big city. Don't worry your heads about the motives for the fight, concentrate on the stakes. Judge impartially the technique of the contenders, and keep your eyes fixed on the finish."^[3]