Epic Theatre: The Influences of Bertolt Brecht Essay

Eugen Berthold Friedrich Brecht, (b.1898-d.1956), known commonly as Bertolt Brecht, was a German poet and playwright. One of his major contributions to theatre history was the “alienation effect” (From the German, “Verfremdungseffekt”). Brechtian alienation requires the removal of the “fourth wall.” This is a term that describes the “suspension of disbelief” by the audience that takes place during a performance. It is often thought that the audience looks in on the play’s action through an invisible wall, just as the audience during a performance is focused upon a procenium stage. This is a literal and figurative term. The audience pretends that the characters in the story are actually alive,

Above all, I wouldn’t be where I am today without theatre. Without the chance to perform throughout my life, I would be disconnected from the wide array of communities and histories that’s been imbedded in my daily routine. Unfortunately, it’s speculated that the theatre is a dying art form, because of the expanding popularities of movies (“Is”), but I think that it’ll remain a well renowned part of expressing imagination and interpreting history as years pass; it only takes cooperation with school faculty and young students that go above and beyond to change their

In the ‘straight theatre’ the director takes the part of the author, and makes the actor see his work (author and director are one). After incorporating the author’s work by way of the director, the actor comes face to face with the spectator (author and director at the actor’s back), and acts freely while enjoying the give and take of the two main elements of theatre – the player and the playgoer. The director alone must set the tone and style of a performance so that the ‘straight theatre’ may not become chaotic, and yet the acting will remain free and unrestrained.”

Brecht was not the sort of writer or director that wanted an exact portrayal from his actors of how he saw his characters. Nor did he expect the audience to take an exact interpretation from he actors. He wanted the audience to draw some sort of moral from the story that would arouse their sense of reason to affect their own

This meant that the old high culture, with its idealism and élitism, would have to be replaced with a specifically modern culture. Brecht demanded ‘the radical transformation of the theater’ which would ‘correspond to the whole radical transformation of the mentality of our time’. In the 1920s, he, along with Erwin Piscator, created an ‘epic’ theatre different from ‘dramatic’ or ‘Aristotelian’ theatre. Whereas the premise for dramatic theatre was that human nature could not be changed, ‘epic’ theatre assumed that it both could change and was already

While writing and narrative (poetic or otherwise) were considered as means of survival, theatre remains outside the circle of literary survivalism. Indeed, according to Anne Ubersfield, “performance is a perishable thing.” (xxii) It is usually considered as an event that is bound by the present. The belief in the historicity of the theatrical event still dominates the critical approaches to theatre. Many contemporary critics maintain that on the stage, “drama takes place and takes time too.” (Worthen xi) They believe that it is “an historical event.” (Styan 6) that is limited in terms of space and duration. It cannot last beyond the performative moment.

For as long as there has been someone valiant enough to grace the stage, there have been people willing to stop and watch. Though this stage has evolved over the centuries and become a metaphor, alluding to new media such as television and the radio, there is no form of entertainment more direct and authentic than that of the original platform. Thus being where the experience is live and therefore more direct. Although this can quite clearly be said for theatre, this essay will look to argue that of all the live experiences there is no experience more natural than that of the stand-up comedian, which is why clear when you examine the relationship between the performer and their audience.

The above example illustrates not only how the theatrical performance affects the audience, but also how the audience influences its dynamics, development and the characters within it. The actors feel a certain level of acceptance from the viewer, who demands a certain way of depicting the character. Theatre is not just entertainment, itís something much more than that ñ itís education. Theatre should always represent things, rather than

Angelo Miramonti says that if he would describe the theatre in words then its energy its fun and its transformation of our lives together. He also says that the word oppressed in the theatre of the oppressed, is the “one who is suffering because of a situation or someone

In other theater forms, the spectators are passive and simply react emotionally to the actors. However, in Theater of the Oppressed, the audience actually has life because they are active participants in the play. By acting as both an audience member and a spectator, the play of the oppressed person at hand becomes more meaningful. The spect-actor can come into the play and through critical thinking, he or she changes the scene to make the oppressor less oppressive. They cannot change the scene through “magic”, or bring in a characteristic that a majority of the oppressed population lacks. When the audience member is both the actor and an observer, there is a space for everyone to be an equal participant thus increasing the level of interaction

In this essay I will be discussing the theatrical style of Brecht and how he created his own form of theatre and I will be using his play 'Mother Courage and Her Children' to back up the innovation and techniques that Brecht used during his career. 'Mother Courage and Her Children' is set in the 30 year's war and follows Mother Courage making a living by selling supplies from her wagon to armies that they encounter. Trying to make a living for herself and her family. The focus is on the conflict that occurs between war profiteering and maintaining a family. Her children end up dying due to the struggle of trying to live like a family and trying to survive the war.

Bertolt Brecht was a director and playwright, born on February 10th 1898 in Augsburg Germany. Throughout his life he disagreed strongly with his father’s bourgeois lifestyle, this may have changed his writing technique and powered his political views portrayed in his work. Brecht studied medicine in 1918 at Munich University where he was then appointed a medical orderly during the First World War. Influenced by the monstrosities war brought to his attention, Brecht wrote many poems reflecting his experiences as well as producing his first play titled “Baal” in 1919. Escaping the grip of war, Brecht followed his passion into Bohemian theatre and literature beginning in Munich where he then travelled to Berlin after. Working alongside Erwin Piscator, they cemented the epic theatre theory. Epic Theatre, is a theory that Brecht believed in encouraging the idea that theatre should conform to the reasoning behind it, instead of focussing on the audience’s feelings towards it. Bertolt Brecht’s work conformed to his theory of epic theatre. He wanted his work to be a platform for change and stated how people should “hang up their brains with their hats in the cloakroom”. Naturalistic theatre focused on entertainment to captivate the audience to the extent of forgetting themselves and being involved with the characters they are watching. Emotions felt and released during theatre such as crying, is recognised as catharsis. Brecht was completely against cathartic theatre and believed

Brecht was born in 1898 in Germany, Ausburg. He had gone to Munich then Berlin, in search of a theatrical career, however it soon came to an abrupt halt as Nazis came into power in Germany. Brecht had fled to the USA to seek a better, safer future. Brecht was influenced by a wide range of writers and events, such as Chinese theatre and Karl Marx. The fact that Brecht had been through so much when his homeland got wrecked, gave him a political view to express reality. Epic theatre is where the spectator shouldn’t get emotionally attached with the characters but instead should try and think of what the message being spread on the stage is really about. Brecht made Epic theatre his main focus as he wanted to portray messages through his work; events he had been through are highlighted in his plays written including themes of death, greed, misery etc. To make sure the audience were left critical of the theatre piece; Brecht would alienate the audience which in return made the audience distance themselves from the performers. Alienation could be by reading stage directions out loud, or having a juxtaposing song where the lyrics may be harsh but are accompanied by a sweet medley like we used in our devised piece. Brecht used juxtaposition as it alienated the audience so they didn’t get connected to the performance on an emotional level. In our performance, we also included juxtaposition for our riot scene, using the sweet melody of ‘ring ring roses’ contrasted with aggressive

Life of Galileo and Top Girls are two plays that truly exemplify epic theater. They both tell stories in order to call the audience to some form of action, and they both alienate the audience from the characters. Epic theater’s purpose is “to cause the audience to think objectively about the play, to reflect on its argument, to understand it, and to draw conclusions” (“Epic Theater”). Therefore, for a work to be categorized as epic theater it must have an argument or main idea. Not only must it have an idea that drives the play, but the subjects of the play must be conduits to this idea. This is why characters in epic plays are often detached from the audience. The audience is not supposed to be invested in

In today's busy world, people usually struggle to find time for fun and a way of relaxation but when it happens, they often spend it on entertainment. One of those forms of entertainment is watching stage or film productions. Theatre and film have lots of aspects in common and depend on each other, however, they involve differences. People choose between theater and film based on factors and their own preferences. The purpose of this essay is to compare and contrast between those two forms of art.