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Brecht, Epic Theatre
Heavily influences by Karl Marx.
- Challenging this dream world, wanted spectator to become an observer who was awake and alert. Epic Theatre posed problems, which were not solved and left the spectator with a task to be accomplished in the real world.
- Against Dramatic Theatre “The Theatre Of Illusion”. It represented all the Brecht detested, sucking the spectator into the action into the illusion were problems were carefully resolved at the conclusion of the play. This meant the spectator could leave those problems behind at the theatre after the performance, Brecht wanted to make the spectator leave with a problem to be solved later in the real world.
Lets compare these two forms of theatre: ( I may interchange the word observer with spectator throughout, but Brecht did convert his audience into observers)
| Dramatic Theatre
| Epic Theatre
|
| Plot: has a beginning, middle and end and issues in the play are solved.
| Narrative: begins anywhere, continues and stops. Issues are not resolved.
|
| Implicates the spectator into situation, that they’re watching what is meant to be real life.
| Spectator becomes an observer, suggests the observer should question what s/he is seeing.
|
| Wears down the spectators capacity for action.
| Arouses the observers capacity for action.
|
| Provides audience with sensations, ideas are reinforced.
| Forces audience to make decisions.
|
| Spectator is involved
| Spectator is made to face something.
|
| Suggestion
| Argument
|
| Spectator shares the experience
| Spectator stands outside
|
| Human being is taken for granted
| Human being is the object of inquiry
|
| Human being is unalterable
| Change is possible
|
| Smooth progression of scenes
| Montage: events are shown in self contained scenes
|
| Linear development
| Broken up
|
| Thought determines being
| Social being determines thought
|
| Theatre with feelings, indulge in emotions
| Theatre with reasoning, audience made to question what they are seeing, form opinions.
|
Some of the main points of Brecht
Montage
“Epic theatre proceeds by fits and starts, in the manner comparable to the images on a film strip.”
- Seemingly unrelated images juxtaposed (placed next to each other) together could shock
- Drew attention to the actual content, because it proceeded in jumps and not progressive.
- Structured theatre so it was totally OPPOSITE TO THE DRAMATIC THEATRE
Verfremdungseffekt
(Started to use this phrase after seeing the Chinese actor Mei Lan-fang)
“Dislocating our habitual perceptions of the real world so as to make it the object of renewed attentiveness”
An example:
“The sky is blue” – tells us nothing about the sky we know already
“It was a sunny day and the sky was like a new sheet of blotting paper with the blue ink tipped in the middle of it” – vivid imagery, increases our attentiveness to the sky.
The actor makes himself the subject of “renewed attentiveness” by not submerging himself in the character.
The actor plays the role, not the character.
Audience look closer at the mechanism of acting.
The technique encouraged “distancing” the audience from the action so they could observe and form opinions of the problem presented to them, they are not involved in the action.
Being distanced makes the audience see more clearly, rather than take things for granted.
Geste
(also means gesture)
- An aspect of an attitude expressible in words or actions.
- Actor made to make himself stand between the spectator and the text.
- Contrasts naturalism
- Standing outside the character
- Not on movement is wasted to convey meaning
- Acting in quotation marks.
Music
- Music essential to his theatre
- Music interrupted the text
- Music and songs treated as separated elements
- Songs could comment on the character’s feelings as a third person narrative, and by doing so far from naturalism.
Design
- Clear and sharp lighting
- Half curtain, seeing actors change costume etc
- Selective realism provided the minimum to suggest time and place
- Audience kept alert by devices that reminded its members they were in a theatre.
Comments
This essay is aimed at A Level theatre studies.
Originally written by Mullerice on TSR Forums.
