She sees people as objects but appears to receive no pleasure or happiness from her wealth: everything is a disappointment to her. Mark Fisher. Mrs Puntila, a wealthy landowner, is fun to be around when drinking and promises the world to those around her, but when sober she reneges on every promise and tends to fire those she hired. Everyone loves a great villain: in this production that strength of stereotype is lessened, leading to less power in the message that Brecht aimed for. The second act is when the show seems to get into its stride, whether by accident or design. When sober, landowner Mrs Puntila is a ruthless and avaricious capitalist overlord, but the minute drink is taken she becomes a kind and generous benefactor. [11] MRS PUNTILA AND HER MAN MATTI By Bertolt Brecht, translated by Denise Mina Directed by Murat Daltaban “Money stinks. "[6] Brecht began work on his non-Aristotelian version of the story on 2 September and finished a first draft three weeks later. The story describes the aristocratic land-owner Puntila's relationship to his servant, Matti, as well as his daughter, Eva, who he wants to marry off to an Attaché.

[5] The title page of Brecht's play describes it as "a people's play" that is "after stories and a draft play by Hella Wuolijoki. Mrs Puntila and Her Man Matti is supported by Friends of the Citizens A CITIZENS THEATRE AND ROYAL LYCEUM THEATRE EDINBURGH CO-PRODUCTION IN ASSOCIATION WITH DOT THEATRE, ISTANBUL. [4] Wuolijoki suggested a collaboration with Brecht on an entry for a competition run by the Finnish Dramatists' League for a "people's play," whose deadline was to fall in October. Her shrewd chauffeur Matti spends his time extricating her from drunken mishaps while wooing her wayward daughter Eva, a match which will only be possible if Mrs Puntila can get over the class divide. View our Privacy Policy. The direction is full of competing elements which often overwhelm the over arching message. Wed 4 Mar 2020 06.24 EST. [13] The composer Paul Dessau wrote a musical setting for the songs for this production, while Casper Neher designed the sets. Royal Lyceum Theatre (in association with Dot Theatre Istanbul).

Her driver, Matti, is a foil to this and with his dry sense of humour, dances around the excesses of Mrs Puntila, somehow managing to keep going despite the occasional firing. [8] Wuolijoki translated Brecht's play into Finnish for the competition but it did not win a prize.
[16], Bharadwaj's interview in The Big Indian Picture. Her shrewd chauffeur Matti spends his time extricating her from drunken mishaps while wooing her wayward daughter Eva, a match which will only be possible if Mrs Puntila can get over the class divide. [15] This production was seen by Wuolijoki.[12]. The latest production at the Royal Lyceum, Mrs Puntila and Her Man Matti, is packed to the gunnels with promise.It is an adaptation of a Bertolt Brecht play by Scottish prize-winning crime novelist, Denise Mina.. Elaine C Smith in Mrs Puntila and Her Man Matti. I wish I had nothing.” Brecht’s classic master and servant comedy is given a gender-switched adaptation by award-winning novelist and playwright Denise Mina (The Detective Alex Morrow, Garnethill and Paddy Meehan series). Get exclusive access to priority onsales and special offers, plus never miss out on the biggest stories from the West End, Off-West End and beyond. It was written in 1940 and first performed in 1948. [14] Brecht introduced the linking "Puntila Song" and decided to discourage the audience's empathy towards Puntila by means of defamiliarising masks for him and all the bourgeois characters. West End, Off-West End, fringe shows, exclusive members discount at top celeb hang out, post-show Q&As and meet and greets. It is directed by Murat Daltaban of Istanbul’s DOT Theatre, who brought the brilliant and award-winning Rhinoceros to the Lyceum stage in 2017. [4] Wuolijoki's work had the dramatic structure of a well-made play, which, Brecht concluded, hampered her achievement as a writer. The play itself is also over-long: with less variety and more targeted elements, this may have allowed the show to be what it aims to be. Sobriety is the new world order," says the heavy-drinking capitalist Puntila near the end of the new London revival of "Mr. Puntila and His Man Matti." Eva herself loves Matti and so Puntila has to decide whether to marry his daughter to his driver or to an Attaché, while he also deals with a drinking problem. [1] The central relationship between Mr Puntila and Matti—in which Puntila is warm, friendly and loving when drunk, but cold, cynical and penny-pinching when sober—echoes the relationship between the Tramp and the Millionaire in Charlie Chaplin's City Lights (1931).

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Brecht chose Puntila for the opening production of the first season of the Berliner Ensemble, the world-renowned theatre company that he founded in 1949 in East Germany with his wife, Helene Weigel. Quoted by Willett and Manheim (1994, xvii).

Times: Tuesday 10 March – Saturday 21 March @ 7:30pm (not Sundays); matinees: Wednesdays & Saturdays @ 2:00pm; Accessible performances: Thursday 12 March, 7:30pm (Audio Described, Touch Tour @ 6.15pm); Saturday 14 March, 2:00pm (Captioned & Audio Described, Touch Tour @ 12:45pm); Wednesday 18 March, 7.30pm (BSL Interpreted), Photo: (L-R) Elaine C Smith, Steven McNicoll; Photo credit: Mihaela Bodlovic, About EdinburghGuide.com | Contact EdinburghGuide.com, Co-production between Royal Lyceum Theatre Edinburgh and Citizens Theatre in association with DOT Theatre, Istanbul, Bertolt Brecht (Writer); Denise Mina (Adapter); Murat Daltaban (Director); Tom Piper (Designer); Katharine Williams (Lighting Designer); Oğuz Kaplangi (Composer and Sound Designer); Max Johns (Associate Designer); Louise Shephard (Assistant Director); Emma Jayne Park (Movement Director); Laura Donnelly CDG (Casting Director); Maya Kurdoglu (Translation and Production Assistant); Özlem Daltaban (Executive Producer for DOT); Susan Hingley (Literal Translation); Halil Unsal (Project Assistant); Owen Thomas (Deputy Stage Manager); Calum Paterson (Sound Associate); Janette Knibb & Myra Galletley (Audio Description); Rachel Amey & Louise Holden (BSL Interpreters); Christabel Anderson (Captioning), Elaine C. Smith (Mrs Puntila); Steven McNicoll (Matti); Natalie Arle-Toyne (Emma The Dealer, The Redhead, The Parson, The Waiter); Rebecca Banatvala (The Cleaner, The Weak Man, The Media Mogul, McClure's Eldest Child); Richard Conlon (The Attaché, Red McClure); Liam King (Fina, The Red Trousered Man, Bulldog); Beth Marshall (The Shopworker, The Worker, The Lawyer); Joanne McGuinness (Eva); Oğuz Kaplangi (Musician); Stephanie Payne (Laina, The Cattle Doctor, Bulldog); Chloé-Ann Tylor (The Carer, The Judge), Mrs Puntila and Her Man Matti, Royal Lyceum Theatre Edinburgh, Review, Beyond: an exhibition of Abstract Landscapes by Kirstin Heggie at the Dundas Street Gallery, Sue White Oakes - Solo Exhibition at the Dundas Street Gallery, 4 - 10 September, 2020, Edinburgh Fringe Unveils Digital Plans for Reimagined 2020, Edinburgh Science Festival Launches Online Programme, Edinburgh’s Festivals 2020 Cancelled This Summer Due to Covid-19, Edinburgh Festival and Fringe Still Planning to Go Ahead in 2020, Married to Magic: MagicFest Founders on What Makes Great Magic, Edinburgh’s Hogmanay to Live Stream New Year’s Eve Celebrations and Fireworks Around the World.
When sober, landowner Mrs Puntila is a ruthless and avaricious capitalist overlord, but the minute drink is taken she becomes a kind and generous benefactor. Running time.

[5] He transformed the treatment of alcoholism from a national problem for the Finnish, as it was dramatised in The Sawdust Princess, to its epic presentation as a farcical aspect of the class war. The premise behind moving the setting of Mrs Puntila and Her Man Matti to modern day Scotland is an interesting one. Photograph: Mihaela Bodlovic. The duality of Mr. Puntila is an example of Brecht's use of the literary device, the split character. There are a few belly laughs - mostly when a roaring drunk Puntila is hurling foul-mouthed abuse at those around him - and some clever physical comedy. Unfortunately we are left with confusion and disengagement, which is disappointing, especially as the 11-strong cast work hard, giving their all to bring the text alive. Brecht's play was adapted for the Austrian film Herr Puntila and His Servant Matti (1960). [12] Brecht co-directed this production with Erich Engel; Puntila was played initially by Leonard Steckel (as with the Zurich production), then by the comedian Curt Bois. In his essay "Notes on the Folk Play" (written in 1940), Brecht warns that "naturalistic acting is not enough in this case" and recommends an approach to staging that draws on the Commedia dell'Arte. The songs are fun, with Natalie Arle-Toyne’s vocals particularly powerful. A host of workers and handful of family also dance to her attendance with varying success. The play was adapted by Denise Mina, directed by Murat Daltaban and starred Elaine C. Smith as Mrs Puntila and Steven McNicoll as Matti. [4] Juntula had become engaged with three village women and had also driven his Buick recklessly in the middle of the night to procure alcohol—both episodes that would be dramatised in Brecht's story. 160mins. Denise Mina’s adapted and updated text has witty moments and any humour is milked for every last drop with the double act of Mrs Puntila and Matti. http://thebigindianpicture.com/2014/03/vishal-bhardwaj-tbip-tete-a-tete, "HERR PUNTILA UND SEIN KNECHT MATTI (1956)", https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Mr_Puntila_and_his_Man_Matti&oldid=967015481, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License. Willett and Manheim outline the changes of Wuolijoki's play that Brecht effected in his re-working in their editorial notes (1994, 399-426). Adapting this classic is Scottish writer Denise Mina, read on to find out more about Denise and her gender-switched adaption. [2] The play is also an inspiration for some of the main characters in Vishal Bhardwaj's Matru Ki Bijlee Ka Mandola. Mr Puntila and his Man Matti (German: Herr Puntila und sein Knecht Matti) is an epic comedy by the German modernist playwright Bertolt Brecht. Mr Puntila and his Man Matti (German: Herr Puntila und sein Knecht Matti) is an epic comedy by the German modernist playwright Bertolt Brecht.It was written in 1940 and first performed in 1948. 1994. [10] Leonard Steckel played Puntila and Gustav Knuth played Matti. The aim of these elements should be to engage the audience, to provoke thought about the messages being given. Following in the footsteps of Brecht’s original, it takes a look at the difference between wealthy landowners in Scotland with a financial wherewithal that is far beyond the ken of the average working class person, and how the lives of those less well off are impacted. Many Brechtian elements are put into play in this production: the functional frame of the set, the breaking of the fourth wall, actors in multi-roles, the visible stage management team and the use of song and movement. Willett, John and Ralph Manheim, eds. [3], Brecht's play is based on another by his host during his exile in Finland—the Finnish-Estonian playwright Hella Wuolijoki—called The Sawdust Princess, a German translation of which Wuolijoki dictated to Margarete Steffin during August 1940. Mrs Puntila and Her Man Matti is an adaptation of Mr Puntila and His Man Matti, which premiered at the Lyceum Theatre, Edinburgh. The problem with Mr Puntila And His Man Matti in my opinion is for a play that's marketed as a comedy, there's not enough humour in Peter Arnott's script. [5] Along with the structural transformation from dramatic to epic, Brecht described his main tasks in re-working Wuolijoki's original as: "to bring out the underlying farce, dismantle the psychological discussions so as to make place for tales from Finnish popular life or statements of opinion, find a theatrical form for the master/man contradiction, and give the theme back its poetic and comic aspects. [9] The two authors agreed that Wuolijoki could develop the Finnish version for production throughout Scandinavia (for which she renamed the protagonist "Johannes Iso-Heikkilä"), while Brecht could negotiate performances anywhere else, where the royalties would be split equally between them. Last modified on Thu 26 Mar 2020 08.26 EDT.