BESSON, BENNO

(1922- )

   Director. Besson was closely associated with Bertolt Brecht, beginning as an assistant with the Berliner Ensemble in 1949. Because he was Swiss, Besson was able to work freely outside the East German state, and because he was Brecht's most gifted protégé, he was in demand within it. Thus he moved throughout the German-speaking theater world with unusual freedom. Besson staged plays in West Germany, his native Switzerland, and Austria, returning on a regular basis to East Berlin and Rostock throughout the 1960s. Many of his productions had Brecht or Helene Weigel's direct blessing and imprimatur, among them Don Juan (Rostock Volkstheater, 1952), Der Prozess der Jeanne d'Arc du Rouen (The Trial of Joan of Arc in Rouen, Deutsches Theater, 1952), Der gute Mensch von Sezuan (The Good Person of Setzuan, Rostock, 1956, and Berliner Ensemble, 1957), Pauken und Tompeten (Trumpets and Drums, Berliner Ensemble 1955), Die Tage der Kommune (Days of the Commune, Karl-Marx-Stadt City Theater, 1956), Mann ist Mann (Rostock, 1958), and Turandot (Zurich Schauspielhaus, 1969). In 1969 Besson became director of the Berlin Volksbühne, helping it to regain some of the luster it had lost in comparison to its titular competitor in West Berlin, the Freie (Free) Volksbühne. Besson is the father of Katharina Thalbach.