Bertold Brecht was an avowed Communist, a fact which is rarely mentioned when his work is performed. “There are three possible responses to an artist who dedicated his life to a monstrous cause. The first is to deodorise him by pretending he was really a liberal humanist, which Brecht certainly was not. The second is to do what the British theatre never does and have an adult argument… The third option is to shrug and walk away.”