RONALD HAYMAN
427
of Brecht's plays, and when Brecht refused to accept a share in the
prize, all of it was awarded to Brecht. But when
Patricide
was pro–
duced in Munich, and Bronnen asked whether he could stay with
Brecht and Marianne, he was refused .
With translators Brecht behaved shamelessly . H. R. Hays pro–
vided an affidavit to help him gain admission to the United States,
translated
Mother Courage
(for the 1941 edition of
New Directions)
and
The Resistible Rise
of
Arturo Ui
without any contract or remuneration ,
and collaborated on adapting Webster's
Duchess of Malji,
only to be
betrayed when Brecht seized the commercially advantageous alter–
native of having W . H. Auden as his collaborator. Auden was not
told how much Hays had done; Hays was not told when Auden be–
gan work on the script.
Piscator, who had given Brecht a job in 1927 and befriended
him ever since , was betrayed similarly . When he said that he had
succeeded in interesting the Theatre Guild in the possibility of reviv–
ing the Schweyk dramatization he had staged in 1928, Brecht offered
to collaborate on a new adaptation of the text. But he did not say
that he was already working with Kurt Weill on a musical version.
He even discussed actors with Piscator, who introduced him to Zero
Mostel and mentioned his intention of using Alfred Kreymborg as
translator. Brecht then wanted to use Mostel and did use Kreym–
borg. When Piscator, who had been left out of the arrangement, dis–
covered it, he drafted a furious letter denouncing the "Brechtian
swinishness" and threatening to knock him off his "amoral Olympus."
The letter he sent was less outspoken.
Ferdinand Reyher, who performed even more favors than
Piscator, was treated still worse . He and Brecht met in 1927, and in
1938, before writing
Calileo,
Brecht asked for Reyher's help in selling
the film rights to Hollywood. Reyher did his best and was con–
sistently helpful when Brecht arrived in Hollywood, translating his
work into English, collaborating with him on film stories and trans–
lations, providing introductions, advising on possible directors for
Calileo,
acting, in James K . Lyon's phrase, as his American cicerone.
In the spring of 1947, Brecht decided to settle in Switzerland and in–
vited Reyher to come with him, and in 1948 he held out the prospect
of having a house in Salzburg with a room in it for Reyher. When he
settled instead in East Berlin , he encouraged Reyher to believe he
was interested in producing one of his plays at the Berliner Ensemble
and in collaborating with him on a new project, perhaps a film. But
when he arrived in Berlin , Brecht was too busy to spend much time
