Bertolt Brecht

EPIC THEATRE
Bertolt Brecht (1898-1956)
was a famous German
playwright and poet.
 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.
Brecht became interested
in Karl Marx’s Theories
of Socialism.
 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.
He called it Epic Theatre.
So, how did Brecht make
the audience step back
and view the message
rather than the
spectacle?
Verfremdungseffekt

or

alienation effects
 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.
It is like a slap in
the face with a wet
fish.

It wakes us up.
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
what did this mean
for the actor?
 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.
 Theatre people
are weirdos...

But pretty clever, because he revolutionised theatre and

turned it into a tool for looking at the big issues that
affect us all. He made it possible for theatre to make a
difference.