bertolt brecht & epic theatre -...
TRANSCRIPT
Brecht started to write political poetry and plays
at an early age about social issues.
He was branded a
troublemaker at school and got expelled for writing
anti-war poems.
Marxist theories were about social justice, and
were critical of Capitalism.
It is about questioning who has power and money, and who goes without.
It is about
industrialisation, and how this affects workers and the power structures
of society.
Epic theatre came about at
a time when Melodrama, Realism and Naturalism were popular as theatre
forms.
Theses naturalistic styles tried to
recreate real life on stage.
The idea was for the audience to believe
the story and characters in the play were real.
Basically theatre aimed to be escapism.
The audience could forget about their lives for a
while.
To not think.
Brecht hated this.
He saw it as a huge waste of an audience.
He wanted people to question and challenge – not simply accept and
enjoy.
In the 1920’s, Brecht created a new form of theatre -
designed to make the audience question
and think about what they were watching.
Verfremdungseffekt was used to direct the audience’s attention
to something new.
This was done by getting the scene started, and then doing something
unexpected.
When the rhythm is interrupted, the audience stops getting lost
in the emotion, story and characters. They are able to start to think and question.
The idea with Verfremdungseffekt was to constantly remind the
audience they were in a theatre, watching a play.
These techniques break the illusion of drama. We do not get lost in the story or the
characters. Instead we are constantly
reminded that these are actors communicating ideas and
situations to us.
For example
• plays were performed with the house lights on so that audience members remained aware of each other during
the performance • music and dancing were used to break up the action of the play, or scenes
were sung rather than spoken • placards were used to give information to the audience
• all of the characters might be dressed in black rather than
individually costumed
Brecht believed that the actor’s job was merely to show what happened. He did not want actors to identify with the character or to
play the role realistically, which was the opposite of Stanislavski’s purpose.
Brecht believed that the actor should:
* move as if blocking movements on stage for the first time or in a robotic, dreamlike way
* treat voice and movement so that they do not match
* speak as if quoting someone else rather than speaking
dialogue
* speak the stage directions aloud
* remain physically and emotionally detached from the other actors
* play scenes with mismatched emotions, for example,
humour in a sad scene
* perform directly to the audience
* exchange roles with other actors
* perform the role as if critically appraising the actions from afar.
Brecht died at the age of 54. He fled Nazi Germany and lived as a script writer in Hollywood in the 1940’s.
In his will, he requested to
be buried in a lead lined coffin with a stiletto heel
through his heart.