Saint Joan of the Stockyards

What is the stock market against its manipulation? For Brecht's unscrupulous meat king Pierpont Mauler it is very lucrative. The workers in his factory, on the other hand, lose their last hope of job security and a possible improvement in their precarious living situation. Only the good-natured Joan Dark, a member of the „Black Straw Hats“, challenges Pierpont Mauler. Her mission: understanding. She wants Mauler to reconsider his actions and change his mind in the spirit of charity. However Johanna's idealism doesn't make her any friends: Taking action against global stock market speculation with warm soup and comforting words? Simply ridiculous and unworldly! Her mission and her ideals begin to falter and she is drawn into the ties of a system that does not shy away from devouring its opponents. Brecht's parable-like didactic play, which was banned by the National Socialists, tells the story of how the population is helplessly at the mercy of the power of global speculators. He pits Mauler's excessive greed against Johanna's selflessness and exposes those who enrich themselves at the expense of the majority. He already criticized this quite aptly in 1929/1930, with the collaboration of Elisabeth Hauptmann, in this play in twelve scenes. 95 years later, in the age of tech capitalism, these questions arise anew.