Farewell

August 1956: the ailing Bertolt Brecht is with his wife, staff and various guests at his lakeside villa, alternating his time writing, chasing after new lovers, avoiding old lovers, and generally feeling rotten, curmudgeonly and tyrannical; meanwhile, unbeknown to him, the authorities want a couple of his guests for 'treason'. This is nothing if not earnest and arty: taciturn, elegiac, measured, oblique, allusive, elegant. It's also, unfortunately, a touch dull and somewhat insubstantial. The themes - compromise, creativity, self-awareness and deception, power, loyalty and betrayal - are all present and correct, but aren't developed in any particularly interesting way.