ROME- German playwright Bertolt Brecht’s works will be given a new twist on August 26 and 27, when Italian actress and singer Elena Bonelli takes “Elena Bonelli performs Brecht” to the Todi Festival in central Italy.

 “For me this is an extraordinary return to a festival I owe a lot to and which has brought me such good fortune,” said Bonelli, who collaborates with musician Cinzia Gangarella and director Patrick Rossi Gastaldi on the ambitious project. The play has toured across Europe and Bonelli says that the performances will be “exceptional in their cultural appreciation.”

 With an exquisite backdrop, Bonelli will bring the greatest songs by dramatist and poet Bertolt Brecht to the stage. According to organisers of the festival, Brecht’s body of work is “a testament to the inter-war period which marked the history of mankind, and his message still remains pertinent to this day, after almost a century.”  

 The play hopes to bring Brechtian thought to the modern day by giving context to his masterpieces through the medium of music, and also relating them to articles about current affairs from newspapers.

 Festival organisers promise that it will be a different Brecht, one stripped of all props and scenery so that the audience focuses solely on the lyrics and the music. “My Brecht is one based on prose and music that abandons scenography to allow the newspaper reports and current affairs to be at the forefront” says Bonelli, who will draw a parallel between the present and life in Brecht’s time through songs with titles such as Schiavitù sessuale (Sexual slavery) and Alabama Song.

 “Elena Bonelli performs Brecht” will play at Teatro Sala on August 26 at 9:00 p.m., and again at the same time on August 27.