A Man's a Man (Mann ist Mann)

"Only one is no one", explains Brecht in his comedy Mann ist Mann (1926) - meaning that the answer lies beyond the "individual psychological state" and lies in the "confrontation of the masses with the individual": We become what we are through our relationships with other people and through the circumstances that surround us. So far, so materialistic, but Brecht also struggled with this assessment throughout his life: Is it good to recognise and understand oneself as a social being? Or is it an evil that leads us straight to fascism? Brecht revised his text again and again and in the end the answer was probably a dialectical "Both!"

And so Brecht's first parable play tells the story of the "transformation of the packer Galy Gay", who encounters a group of soldiers who use him for their own purposes. Galy Gay is transformed, finds himself and is made into a human being - for better or for worse. Because "Only one is no one - someone has to call him first".

MAX LINDEMANN was born in the Ruhr area in 1989. He staged his first productions at the Schauspiel Dortmund theatre when Kay Voges was artistic director there. He studied directing at the Ernst Busch Academy of Dramatic Arts. Mann ist Mann is his third production at the Berliner Ensemble.