''The Elephant Calf'' (''Das Elefantenkalb''), also known as ''The Baby Elephant'', is an early one-act
surrealistic
Surrealism is a cultural movement that developed in Europe in the aftermath of World War I in which artists depicted unnerving, illogical scenes and developed techniques to allow the unconscious mind to express itself. Its aim was, according to ...
prose
Prose is a form of written or spoken language that follows the natural flow of speech, uses a language's ordinary grammatical structures, or follows the conventions of formal academic writing. It differs from most traditional poetry, where the ...
farce written by the German
modernist
Modernism is both a philosophy, philosophical and arts movement that arose from broad transformations in Western world, Western society during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The movement reflected a desire for the creation of new fo ...
playwright
Bertolt Brecht. It originally formed the penultimate scene of Brecht's full-length play ''
Man Equals Man'', but by 1926 Brecht had separated it to an appendix to the published text. It was performed as part of ''
Man Equals Man'' that same year. It is an
interlude
Interlude may refer to:
*a short play or, in general, any representation between parts of a larger stage production
*''Entr'acte'', a piece of music performed between acts of a theatrical production
*a section in a movement of a musical piece, se ...
form of
play within a play and in a later note Brecht suggests that it is "to be played in the foyer". He has also given it the subtitle "or The provability of any and every contention".
References
* Willett, John. 1967. ''The Theatre of Bertolt Brecht: A Study from Eight Aspects.'' Third ed. London: Methuen. . p. 28.
Plays by Bertolt Brecht
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