"The outcast, the disillusioned tough becomes the hero; he may be criminal, he may be semi-human," argues John Willett, "but in plays like Baal he can be romanticized into an inverted idealist, blindly striking out at the society in which he lives.

Defiantly aloof from the consequences of his actions, Baal is nonetheless brought low by his debauchery, dying alone in a forest hut, hunted and deserted, and leaving in his wake the corpses of deflowered maidens and murdered friend.

Despite being written in 1918, Baal did not receive a theatrical performance until 1923, when it opened on 8 December at the Altes Theater in Leipzig (in a production directed by Alwin Kronacher in which Brecht participated for most rehearsals).

[5] Baal had its British premiere on 17 February 1963 at the Phoenix Theatre, London, starring Peter O'Toole, directed by William Gaskill, and designed by Jocelyn Herbert.

[7] Actor/film director/screenwriter Rainer Werner Fassbinder played the title role for the 1970 German TV production of Baal by Volker Schlöndorff, alongside actors Margarethe von Trotta and Günther Kaufmann.