Brecht

EPIC THEATRE AND BERTOLT BRECHT

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o Bertolt Brecht
o Epic Theatre
o Verfremdungseffekt
o Theatrical Devices
o Brechtian Staging
o Other Brechtian Devices
o Spass
o Gestus
o Quotes
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Bertolt Brecht
Brecht was born on February 10 1898 in Augsburg, Bavaria. After serving as a medical orderly in
the First World War and being appalled by the effects of the war, he went first to Munich and
then to Berlin in pursuit of a career in theatre. This period of his life came to an end in 1933 when
the Nazis came to power in Germany. Brecht fled and during this period the Nazis formally
removed his citizenship, making him a stateless citizen. Brecht and his family spent years moving
from place to place, before the start of WW2. In 1940, Brecht moved to Finland, where he waited
for his United States visa, which he was granted on May 3rd 1941. During the war years, Brecht
became a prominent writer of the Exilliteratur (anti-Nazi books). He expressed his opposition to
the National Socialist and Fascist movements in his most famous plays: ‘Life of Galileo’, ‘Mother
Courage and Her Children’, ‘The Good Person of Szechwan’, ‘The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui’, ‘The
Caucasian Chalk Circle’, ‘Fear and Misery of the Third Reich’, and many others. In 1947, Brecht
was accused of being a Communist, meaning he was blacklisted by Hollywood bosses. On October
30th 1947 Brecht testified that he had never been a part of the Communist party and returned,
the next day, to Europe. In his final years he didn’t write many plays but composed some of his
most famous poetry. Bertolt Brecht died of a heart attack on 14th August 1956, aged 58.
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Epic Theatre
Epic Theatre was a theatrical movement arising in the early to mid-20th century from the
theories and practices of a number of theatre practitioners, including Erwin Piscator, Vladimir
Mayakovsky, Vsevolod Meyerhold and, most famously, Bertolt Brecht. Many of the concepts
of Epic Theatre had been around for hundreds of years, but Brecht unified them and made
them popular. One of the main aims of Epic Theatre is to make the audience aware that they
are watching a play and to force them to think critically about their everyday lives. Brecht was
against Stanislavski’s ‘naturalistic’ approach to theatre, disliking the shallow spectacle,
manipulative plots and heightened emotion of melodrama. He saw this as a method of
escapism, where people would, for example, watch actors
starving on the stage and then go out to eat at a restaurant,
never caring about those who were actually starving.
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Verfremdungseffekt
Often called the alienation, distancing or ‘v’ effect, Verfremdungseffekt is the technique of
‘alienating’ the audience and making them separate from the action. Brecht still wanted his
audience to remain interested and engaged in the play, otherwise his message would be lost,
and just wanted to prevent them from becoming emotionally invested in the characters so they
could assess the characters’ situations critically without being clouded by emotions.
Epic theatre breaks the ‘fourth wall’, the imaginary wall which separates the actors from the
audience, keeping the audience as mere spectators. Instead, the audience are active
members of the performance, thinking throughout and not switching off.
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Theatrical Devices
• Narration – This is used to remind the audience that they’re watching the presentation of a story. Sometimes the narrator tells
us what will happen in the story before it happens so we don’t become to emotionally invested as we know the outcome.
• Coming out of role / Third person narration – Characters will often interrupt intense scenes with narration so that the
audience remembers that what they’re watching is set up.
• Speaking the stage directions – Brecht used this frequently in rehearsal to distance the actor from the character and in
performance to force the audience to analyse the character’s actions.
• Direct address – Speaking to the audience destroys the fourth wall and thus any illusion of reality. Characters often ask the
audience for advice (usually, rhetorically), making the audience assess the situation and decide how they would handle it.
• Using placards – Placards don’t only comment on the action but deepen our understanding of the situation. For example, a
married couple are arguing and the wife is very upset. If the actress held up a placard saying ‘I’m miserable’ that wouldn’t tell
us anything about the character that we didn’t already know. However, if her placard said ‘I’m having an affair’ or ‘I’ve never
loved him’ the audience would be forced to consider other aspects of their relationship and to think about deeper reasons
behind her tears.
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Brechtian Staging
• Multi-roling – This makes it clear to the audience that they are watching a presentation of events. Cross-gender casting is also
used to make the audience judge the character more critically and coincides with the idea of ‘making the familiar strange’.
• Split-role – This is where more than one actor plays the same character. This keeps that character representational and inhibits
emotional involvement and attachment on the part of the audience.
• Minimal set/costume/props - Set, costume and props are all kept simple and representational. Elaborate costumes might
mean that the sense of theatre, of pretending to be something else, was lost. Brecht believed in historicism so the props are
authentic. For example, Mother Courage’s cart is stocked with things Mother Courage might use. The cart is the ‘fifth member
of the family’ according to Brecht so there are examples of props being as important as characters in his plays.
• Symbolic props - Often one item can be used in a variety of ways. A suitcase might become a desk, or a car door or a bomb.
• Lighting – Brecht kept lighting simple so as not to overshadow the message of the piece. He used harsh white light to
‘illuminate the truth’. The important thing is that the audience still see the theatre, so often they will see production personnel,
such as backstage crew, in action on the stage rather than hidden.
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Other Brechtian Devices

• Song and dance – This is another way to remind the audience that they are watching a play.
Often in Brechtian theatre, the music and lyrics contrast; sad lyrics would be accompanied by
upbeat music. The song ‘Mack the Knife’ from The Threepenny Opera by Brecht and Kurt Weil an
upbeat and joyous melody with dark and sinister lyrics. One of the most famous lines from this
play would still appeal to a modern audience: “Who is the bigger criminal: he who robs a bank
or he who founds one?”
• Montage – A montage is a series of short self-contained scenes grouped immediately after
each other whose juxtaposition or contrast highlights the important issues with absolute clarity.
This idea of separate scenes also allows for a focus on minute details if the
situation of the play demands it. Brecht consciously borrowed the idea
from silent movies, which needed montage to express important issues
without the use of words.

‘Mack the Knife’

- Jerry Orbach
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Spass
Spass literally translates as fun. Brecht wanted to make his audience think. He realised that while we are
laughing we are also thinking. Brechtian work isn’t boring and it’s definitely not always serious either. Even
if the message itself is serious Brecht realised that comedy could be an excellent way of engaging the
audience and forcing them to think about issues.
Brecht also needed to break rising tension so the audience didn’t become too emotionally invested in the
characters and spass is a great way to do this. It might be used in the form of a comic song, slapstick or
physical comedy or even a stand-up routine. Despite its ‘silliness’ it often makes strong social comment in
the way it’s used in the treatment of a serious subject.
For example, a very serious work addressing suicide might break the action at a key moment in a
character’s unhappiness to break into a parody of an American advert: “Are you feeling low? Depressed?
Think there’s no way out? Then you need new ‘End it All’”. The poor taste of this would be shocking for an
audience. But it actually highlights the pain of depression through contrast and black comedy. The
audience will laugh and then question why they laughed.
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Gestus
Gestus is a clear character gesture or movement used by the actor that captures a moment or attitude
rather than delving into emotion. Brecht and his actors studied photographs of the plays in rehearsal to
ensure each moment worked effectively as every moment is important.
Brecht didn’t want the actors to be the character onstage, only to show them as stereotypes. For example,
the boss who is corrupt and smoking a fat cigar as his workers starve is representative of every boss who
profits through the exploitation of others. For this reason Brecht would often refer to his characters by
archetypal names, such as ‘The Soldier’ or ‘The Girl’. The interpretation will be built on the character’s
social role and why they need to behave as they do, rather than looking inwardly at emotional motivation.
So we judge the character and their situation, rather than just empathising with them.
Gestus is also gesture with social comment. For example, a soldier saluting as he marches across a stage is
a gesture. But if he was saluting as he marched over a stage strewn with dead bodies, it would be Gestus
as a social comment about the type of person he represents. The most famous example of Gestus is
Mother Courage’s silent scream in the face of her son’s dead body. This makes us think of why she must
hide her feelings instead of losing herself in emotion and then why we, or the people around us, would
have to hide our feelings in such a way and how that is a problem.
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Quotes
“It is not enough to demand insight and informative images of reality from the theatre. Our theatre must stimulate a desire for understanding, a
delight in changing reality. Our audience must experience not only the ways to free Prometheus, but be schooled in the very desire to free him.
Theatre must teach all the pleasures and joys of discovery, all the feelings of triumph associated with liberation”

“No one can be “First comes a “A man who strains

good for long if full stomach, himself on the stage is
goodness is not the comes “Sometimes it’s bound, if he is any good,
in demand” more important to to strain all the people
ethics” be human, than to sitting in the stalls”
“It’s alright to “Unhappy the land have good taste”
hesitate if you then “Art is not a mirror
that is in need of
go ahead” “People remain “The world of held up to reality
heroes” knowledge takes a but a hammer with
what they are even crazy turn when
“What's breaking into a which to shape it”
bank compared with if their faces fall teachers themselves
apart” are taught to learn”
founding a bank?”