Influences and Characteristics of Brechtian Theatre
- Use of technology to project words and film onto the stage that comments on the performance.
- Historification – projecting news clips to make the audience put the play into a historical context.
- Placards that announce when the scene will begin.
- Design looks mechanical or industrial (i.e. conveyor belts, pipes, wheels)
Full Answer
What is Brechtian theatre and how can it help you?
Brecht wanted to make the audience think and used different devices to remind them that they were watching theatre and not real life. We’re going to delve deep into Brechtian theatre, explore Brecht’s techniques and learn how you can apply them to your own work. What Is Brechtian Theatre?
What is epic theatre according to Brecht?
Epic theatre is the main type of theatre outlined and created by Bertolt Brecht. By definition, ''epic theatre'' is theatre that repeatedly and deliberately reminds its observers that the events being depicted are not events to which they can relate. Thus, epic theatre is ''epic'' in the sense that it is not fully understood or understandable.
What is Brecht's naturalistic style of theatre?
In naturalistic or dramatic theatre, the audience invest in the lives of the characters on stage and as a result, often forget about their own lives. Brecht wanted his audiences to remain engaged and didn’t want them to watch his plays for escapism but instead interact and make judgements about any social issues in his work.
Is Brecht’s Theatre of Cruelty similar to the theatre of Artaud?
There are some similarities between Brecht’s theatrical performances and those pioneered by Antonin Artaud, known as the Theatre of Cruelty. But, the latter was more interested in a visceral reaction than a new level of comprehension as Brecht was.
What did Brecht do in his plays?
Under capitalism, Marx contended that since everything is a product for sale, all human lives, relationships and values become products. The workers become de-humanized and are incorporated into the machinery of production. Brecht applied this idea to theatre, both in content and style. Many of his plays deal with socio-economic problems of capitalism and power, but Brecht also applied Marx’s ideas about production to how his plays were performed. He wanted audiences to see the literal production process of the play, such as the lighting grid or the action backstage, so that they would have to think about the process, not just the final product.
What is epic theatre?
Epic Theatre - Form of didactic drama presenting a series of loosely connected scenes that avoid illusion and often interrupt the story line to address the audience directly with analysis, argument, or documentation; associated particularly with the German theatre movement led by Bertolt Brecht in the 1920s
What did Brecht like to do with his plays?
Brecht’s plays were didactic and aimed to teach or instruct their audience. Brecht used the term ‘Lehrstück’, meaning ‘learning-play’.
What did Brecht call the audience?
Brecht preferred to call the audience ‘spectators’ . direct address by actors/characters to audience was a strong and unconventional technique used by performers. direct address broke the (invisible) ‘fourth wall’ and crushed traditional realistic/naturalistic conventions. narration was common in Brechtian dramas.
What is epic theatre?
Epic theatre was a theatrical movement arising in the early to mid-20th century from the theories and practice of a number of theatre practitioners, including Erwin Piscator, Vladimir Mayakovsky, Vsevolod Meyerhold and, most famously, Bertolt Brecht . Although many of the concepts and practices involved in Brechtian epic theatre had been around for years, even centuries, Brecht unified them, developed the style, and popularized it. Epic theatre incorporates a mode of acting that utilises what he calls gestus. The epic form describes both a type of written drama and a methodological approach to the production of plays: “Its qualities of clear description and reporting and its use of choruses and projections as a means of commentary earned it the name ‘epic’.” Brecht later preferred the term “dialectical theatre” which he discussed in his work “A Short Organum for the Theatre”.
Why did Bertolt Brecht use emotional manipulation?
He considered it a “branch of the narcotics business.” Why? The theater of his time, like most Hollywood movies now, relied on emotional manipulation to bring about a suspension of disbelief for the audience , along with an emotional identification with the main character. Audience members were taken on an uncritical emotional roller coaster ride, crying when the main character cried, laughing when s/he laughed — identifying with him/her even when the character had nothing in common with them or their interests (working-class audiences swooningly identifying with a Prince of Denmark, for example).
How can the audience be entertained without being manipulated?
By showing the instruments of theater and how they can be manipulative — for example, the actor calling out “Cue the angry red spotlight!” before he shrieks with rage, or “Time for the gleeful violin” before dancing happily as the violinist joins him on stage, or visibly dabbing water on his eyes when he is supposed to cry . . . the audience can be entertained without being manipulated. Many of Brecht’s techniques have been co-opted and incorporated into contemporary bourgeois theater and film, though his challenge remains relevant: how to confront the problem of emotional manipulation while creating a stimulating, surprising, entertaining, radically critical, popularly appealing and accessible social art practice.
How does alienation affect theater?
The alienation effect attempts to combat emotional manipulation in the theater , replacing it with an entertaining or surprising jolt. For instance, rather than investing in or “becoming” their characters, they might emotionally step away and demonstrate them with cool, witty, and skillful self-critique. The director could “break the fourth wall” and expose the technology of the theater to the audience in amusing ways. Or a technique known as the social gest could be used to expose unjust social power relationships so the audience sees these relationships in a new way. The social gest is an exaggerated gesture or action that is not to be taken literally but which critically demonstrates a social relationship or power imbalance. For example, workers in a corporate office may suddenly and quickly drop to the floor and kowtow to the CEO, or the women in a household may suddenly start to move in fast-motion, cleaning the house, while the men slowly yawn and loaf around.
What was Brecht's social and political focus?
Brecht’s own social and political focus departed also from surrealism and the Theatre of Cruelty, as developed in the writings and dramaturgy of Antonin Artaud, who sought to affect audiences viscerally, psychologically, physically, and irrationally. .
What is the Brechtian theater in The Scottsboro Boys?
In their satiric representation of the trials, racism, and the minstrel tradition, Kander and Ebb create Brechtian theater in The Scottsboro Boys. The racist conventions of minstrel theater establish a Brechtian dynamic throughout the play as the musical entertains but also promote social change through heightened historical consciousness. The play thrusts a satirical representation of racism during the trials and the racist conventions of minstrel theater upon the audience, a convention widely observed in Brechtian works. These inescapable and troubling historical realities impede the audience’s imagination; spectators are limited in their ability to derive their own meaning from the show as it is predetermined by history. Through the Brechtian portrayal of the story, however, the show is impactful, and while this strategy may not be viewed as socially acceptable by some, it is a necessary commentary on the racism present throughout American history, and toward which the audience is challenged to formulate its own response.
What is the significance of Kander and Ebb's emphasis on the structure of the show?
In this way, The Scottsboro Boys aligns itself with aspects and goals of Brechtian epic theater to limit audience connection as the form and message of the show are developed through the multiple characters each actor performs; Kander and Ebb use these exaggerated stereotypes to highlight the satirical elements of the show and alienate the audience. Here, this Brechtian device allows the audience to more clearly understand and experience the racist conventions of minstrel theatre.
What are the devices Wolski mentions?
The devices Wolski mentions relate directly to the minstrel structure of the show through the usage of blackface by the Scottsboro boys and the racist lyrics that Tambo and Bones sing. In “The Minstrel March/Hey, Hey, Hey, Hey,” Tambo and Bones exclaim: “Wheel about, turnabout, and do just so. Every time dey wheel about, dey jump Jim Crow!” (Kander et al. 6) The direct mentioning of Jim Crow with its racist connotations in such a pointed confrontation with the audience unsettles in a way that alienates and disturbs. Similar to the conventions of Brechtian epic theater, Kander and Ebb use this spin on a typical theatrical style to highlight not only the racist conventions of minstrelsy, but also the historical perspective of racism present in the trials.
