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20th Century Theatre
The Theatre of Bertolt Brecht
Bertolt Brecht was born in Germany in
1898
Playwright
Director
He has had a great impact on theatre
and plays during the past 50 years
He died in 1956
Brecht’s Philosophy
He believed theatre should be political
He believed that theatre should be
used to force people to think
He opposed theatre as entertainment
or escapism.
He sought to create the opposite
Bertolt Brecht
He wanted audiences to leave his plays
having learnt something about themselves
and the world
Brecht lived over a period in history which
included both World Wars, Nazism, the
Great Depression, the bombing of
Hiroshima and Nagasaki
It is not surprising that Brecht used theatre
to get his political message across
Germany 1930’s
Nazi Germany
The Atomic Bombing of Hiroshima
An Hiroshima Victim
Brecht despised the romantic, the
sentimental and the realistic
Brecht’s was a political theatre
He wanted his audience to view his
plays critically
He did not want the audience to
accept the play as a form of real life
He wanted the concepts presented to
be considered objectively
Epic Theatre
Brecht created a distinct style called
Epic Theatre
It is sometimes referred to as Theatre
of Alienation
Brecht had been influenced by many
other earlier theatrical practitioners
and theatrical styles, even those from
Asia.
Features of Epic Theatre
Alienation
Narration
Episodic
No stage illusions
Chorus
Signs
Song
Generalised characters
Alienation
To alienate means to feel not part of
something
Brecht did not want his audience to
sympathise with the characters on stage
He wanted the audience to feel estranged,
separate, detached
He wanted the audience to remain
objective and learn from the message
being portrayed
This alienation effect was not meant
to literally alienate the audience, but
meant to objectify the audience’s
attitude
Narration
A character was often used to narrate
during the play
This allowed the playwright to
comment on the action in the play
This narration stopped the action of
the play, reminding the audience it
was not real, and adding more food
for thought
Episodic
Brecht’s plays consisted of short
scenes/episodes broken up by
narration, song and dance
They are not plot driven
The audience can consider each
episode at its own pace rather than
being caught up in wanting to find out
how the story ends
No Stage Illusions
Actors moved props around
No blackouts for scene changes –
lights were left on
Props were minimal
Scenes were often augmented with
slide projections
Chorus
Actors spoke or sang in unison – like
in Ancient Greek Theatre
The chorus broke up scenes of the
play
They commented on the play directly
to the audience
Signs
-
Big signs were used to designate:
Obvious stage props
Characters
Places
Or to comment on the action
Song
Songs were used to break up the
scenes
To alienate the audience
To comment on the action in the play
Generalised Characters
As Epic Theatre discouraged
audiences from identifying with or
becoming too attached to characters,
general roles were written.
Some characters had names but
often they were only known as
Mother, Worker, etc
Actors
Actors often stepped out of the action
to talk directly to the audience
Meryl Streep as Mother Courage
talking directly to audience
Historification
All events were set in the past
He didn’t want audiences to bring
their own contemporary societal
conditioning to viewing the play
This was so that audiences would be
able to watch and consider critically
Stagecraft
A bare stage
Minimal set
Minimal lighting
Minimal props
Everything was to indicate that this was
theatre, not real life.
It was the completely opposite approach to
Naturalism.
Role of the Actor
The role of the actor is to primarily
arouse the critical consciousness of
the audience members
The actor should not generate any
emotional empathy
Brecht’s turbulent life and the
influence of world politics
Brecht was born in Bavaria
He studied medicine
He worked in Munich, Germany as an
orderly during World War I
He was a socialist and anti-fascist
Hence he opposed Hitler and the
Nazis
Brecht’s Private Life
He married the opera singer and actress
Marianne Zoff in 1922.
Their daughter, Hanne Hiob, born in 1923,
is a well-known German actress.
In 1930 Brecht married Helene Weigel,
who had already borne him a son, Stefan.
Their daughter Barbara was born soon
after the wedding.
She also became an actress and currently
holds the copyrights to all of Brecht's work.
First Wife, Marianne Zoff
Hanne Hiob, Brecht’s 1st Daughter
2nd Wife, Helene Weigel
Brecht’s Exile from Germany
Brecht had to leave Germany in February
1933, when Hitler took power.
He went to Denmark
when war seemed imminent in 1939, he
moved Stockholm, Sweden. He stayed
there for one year.
Then Hitler invaded Norway and Denmark,
and Brecht felt the need to leave Sweden
for Finland where he waited for his visa for
the United States until May 3, 1941
Brecht was accused of being unAmerican in 1947 and had to go to
court.
He was difficult and uncooperative
using his poor English as an excuse
He claimed he had never held
communist party membership
He left USA
Arrived in Europe
Went to Switzerland
Was invited by the government to
move to East Germany, which was a
communist country during this part of
the 20th century
East Berlin became Brecht’s home
The Berliner Ensemble
He was enticed by the offer of his own
theatre (completed in 1954) and theatre
company (the Berliner Ensemble).
Brecht died in 1956 of a heart attack
Brecht left the Berliner Ensemble to his
wife, the actress Helene Weigel, which she
ran until her death in 1971.
Perhaps the most famous German touring
theatre of the post war era, it was primarily
devoted to performing Brecht plays.
Brecht retained his Austrian nationality
He retained his overseas bank accounts
from which he received valuable hard
currency remittances.
The copyrights on his writings were held by
a Swiss company.
He used to drive around East Berlin in a
pre-war DKW car — a rare luxury in the
austere divided capital.
Brecht was not always popular with the
East German government
He was often scruffy and unshaven
He did not live up to their expectations of a
great poet and playwright because he was
so scruffy
Security guards once excluded him from a
reception that was being held in his honour
because of the way he looked
The Plays
Brecht wrote many plays.
The most famous are:
Good Person of Setzuan
Caucasian Chalk Circle
The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui
The Life of Galileo
Mother Courage and Her Children
Good Person of Setzuan
A Set Design for Good Person of
Setzuan
Caucasian Chalk Circle
The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui
A More Naturalistic Set Design for
“Arturo Ui”
The Life of Galileo
Set Design for Galileo
Mother Courage and Her Children
Brecht’s Wife, Helene Weigel, as
Mother Courage
Performing Epic Theatre Today
Modern theatre directors usually use
a modified version of Brecht’s Epic
Theatre
They tend to use more naturalistic
acting styles, but may use many of
the other theatrical conventions of
Epic Theatre