brecht and jesus

I just noticed that back in December I promised an excerpt from my final paper, "The Influence of Brecht and Beckett on a Christian Theatre."

Here's a bit about Bertolt Brecht, beginning with a chunk of dialogue from St. Joan of the Stockyards:

MAULER:
The difficulties that have weighed upon us
Are clearing. Poverty and hunger, crime
And violence, all have one cause, and this
One cause is being obviated.
There was too much meat. This year the market
Was glutted and the price of livestock
Fell through the floor. But now, to hike it up
And keep it up, we packers and we breeders have
Resolved by one accord to impose a limit
On hitherto unbridled livestock production
And to forestall the glutting of the market
By wiping out the present oversupply.
In a word, by burning a third of all our livestock.
SNYDER:
If all this livestock is indeed so worthless...
Couldn't you give it to all those people
Standing out there? They'd make good use of it.
MAULER:
Dear Mr. Snyder, you have failed to grasp
The essence of the problem. All those people
Standing out there are customers!

"Like Mauler's absurd claim that the root of Poverty and hunger is 'too much meat,' and that the penniless customers must be made to pay, we in the church have repeatedly misinterpreted the 'one cause' of societal wickedness, and have too often mistaken 'The essesence of the problem.' But neither Brecht's Theatre nor the Church are essentially places of entertainment in which we set aside our critical thinking. Rather, they may both be a place for thinking to be focused and strengthened. If, as some suggest, meeting in church is preparation for a revolution, then the dramaturgy of Brecht will serve us well as a method of awakening ourselves and our companions to that which is our true enemy."

And one last quotation from Joan herself:

I spoke in all the marketplaces
Countless were my dreams, but I
Brought injury to the injured and
Was useful to the injurers...
One thing i've learned, and dying
I will tell you:
It makes no sense to say there's something deep inside you that
Won't come out! Can you think of anything
That has no consequences?