ABSTRACT
To explain Brecht's significance for and in the postmodern theatre he needs to be seen in conjunction with the work of other writers and theorists of the theatre. It is a fact that the continuing effects of Brecht's radical theory of the epic theatre cannot be found in the practical realization of his own plays, at least not in the reverent way that producers are made to treat them at present. Hence we have arrived at the paradoxical situation of a 'Brechtreception without Brecht' (see Wirth, 1980, p . 16). That is to say, his most radical ideas, as he tried to develop them in his early and more marginal works, have not been allowed to fertilize his main oeuvre.
