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BRECHT
AND THE EPIC THEATRE
Bertolt Brecht (1898-1956)
There’s more than one Bertolt Brecht
up Pompeii
Brechtian Theory is not ‘Set in Stone’
Brecht’s theatre is
constantly
changing
You cannot separate the
theory from the plays
You cannot separate the
politics from the plays
The Good Person of Szechwan
Eugen Berthold Friedrich
Brecht
•
Born on 10th Feb 1898 in Augsburg, Germany
•
Brecht was a sickly child, with a congenital heart condition and a facial tic, He
suffered a heart attack at the age of twelve, but soon recovered and continued
his education
•
While in school, he began writing and ended up co-founding and co-editing a
school magazine called ‘The Harvest’ and wrote his first play ‘The Bible’
•
Studied medicine in Munich (1917-1921) and served in a army hospital in 1918
during World War I
•
After the war, he moved to Berlin where he was attracted to modern theatre
•
Appointed as a consultant in 1924 in Deutches Theater in Berlin
•
Works with Erwin Piscator (originator of the phrase ‘Epic Theatre’)
BRECHT
•
In 1922, his play ‘Drums in the night’
opened and received the prestigious
Kleist prize for young dramatist as a
result
•
In 1923 his two plays ‘Jungle of
Cities’ and ‘Baal’ cause controversy
in Berlin theatre world
•
First professional production –
‘Edward II’ in 1924
•
1928 - ‘The Threepenny Opera’
becomes a sensation and begins a
long collaboration with composer Kurt
Weill
BAAL 1918
BRECHT
•
Violent antibourgeois attitude
•
Among his friends were members of the Dadaist group
•
Discovered Marxism in the late 1920s with Karl Korsch,
an eminent Marxist theoretician
•
He developed his theory of ‘epic theater’ and an austere
form of irregular verse and embraced Marxism
The Beggar’s Opera (1728)
The Threepenny Opera (1928)
BRECHT
•
In 1933 to 1941 he went on exile in Scandinavia (mainly in Denmark)
•
From 1941 until 1947 he lived in the USA where he did some film work for
Hollywood
•
In this period, his books were burned and his citizenship was withdrawn
•
He was cut off from German theatre
•
In this period away from Germany, Brecht wrote most of his greatest plays, major
theoretical essays and dialogues
Influences - Murder Ballads
•
Typically recounts the details of
a mythic or true crime — who
the victim is, why the murderer
decides to kill him or her, how
the victim is lured to the murder
site and the act itself —
followed by the escape and/or
capture of the murderer
EINFÜHLUNG
•
Translates as “Understanding/Empathy”
•
Originates in Aristotle’s ‘Poetics’
•
The audience feel what the character feels
•
Therefore - the audience must be passive
•
Brecht terms this type of drama an ‘emotional orgy’
PIRATE JENNY
You people can watch while I'm scrubbing
these floors
And I'm scrubbin' the floors while you're
gawking
Maybe once ya tip me and it makes ya feel
swell
In this crummy Southern town
In this crummy old hotel
But you'll never guess to who you're talkin'.
No. You couldn't ever guess to who you're
talkin'.
Then one night there's a scream in the night
And you'll wonder who could that have been
And you see me kinda grinnin' while I'm
scrubbin'
And you say, "What's she got to grin?"
I'll tell you.
There's a ship
The Black Freighter
With a skull on it's masthead
Will be coming in
You gentlemen can say, "Hey gal, finish
them floors!
Get upstairs! What's wrong with you! Earn
your keep here!
You toss me your tips
And look out to the ships
But I'm counting your heads
As I'm making the beds
Cuz there's nobody gonna sleep here,
tonight
Nobody's gonna sleep here
Nobody!
Nobody!
Then one night there's a scream in the
night
And you say, "Who's that kicking up a
row?"
And ya see me kinda starin' out the winda
And you say, "What's she got to stare at
now?"
I'll tell ya.
There's a ship
The Black Freighter
Turns around in the harbor
Shootin' guns from her bow
PIRATE JENNY
Now
You gentlemen can wipe off that smile off
your face
Cause every building in town is a flat one
This whole frickin' place will be down to the
ground
Only this cheap hotel standing up safe and
sound
And you yell, "Why do they spare that one?"
Yes.
That's what you say.
"Why do they spare that one?"
By noontime the dock
Is a-swarmin' with men
Comin' out from the ghostly freighter
They move in the shadows
Where no one can see
And they're chainin' up people
And they're bringin' em to me
Askin' me,
"Kill them NOW, or LATER?"
Askin' ME!
"Kill them now, or later?"
All the night through, through the noise and
to-do
You wonder who is that person that lives up
there?
And you see me stepping out in the morning
Looking nice with a ribbon in my hair
Noon by the clock
And so still at the dock
You can hear a foghorn miles away
And in that quiet of death
I'll say, "Right now.
Right now!"
And the ship
The Black Freighter
Runs a flag up it's masthead
And a cheer rings the air
Then they pile up the bodies
And I'll say,
"That'll learn ya!"
And the ship
The Black Freighter
Disappears out to sea
And
On
It
Is
PIRATE JENNY
Brecht and the un-American committee
(1947)
THE BALLAD OF MAC THE KNIFE
And the shark, oh, it has teeth
And it wears them in its face.
And Macheath, he has a knife,
But this knife, no one sees.
Oh, how red is the shark’s fin,
when the blood flows.
Mack the Knife, he wears a glove,
From which no atrocity can be read.
In the Thames’ green waters,
People suddenly fall.
Is it either plague or cholera?
No, it means Macheath’s been around.
On a beautiful blue Sunday,
A dead man lies on the beach
And a man goes around the corner
Known as Mackie the Knife.
And Schul Meier is still missing
And so many rich men,
Mackie the Knife has his money,
But no one can prove anything.
Jenny Towler was found
With a knife in her breast,
And on the dock goes Macheath,
Who knows nothing at all.
Where is Alfons Gilte, the cabman?
Will this ever come to light?
Anyone could know.
Macheath knows nothing.
And the great fire in Soho,
Seven children and an old man.
In the crowd, Mackie the Knife —
He’s not asked and doesn’t know.
And the underaged widow
Whose name everyone knows,
Woke up and was raped.
Mackie, what was your price?
For some are in darkness
And some are in light.
One sees those in light,
But those in darkness, one sees not.
The Ballad Of Mack The Knife
BRECHT
•
1949 - tempted back to East Germany by the Communist
party with promise of own theatre
•
1950 - forms Berliner Ensemble
•
1954 - Berliner Ensemble theatre opened
•
Dedicates himself to directing and nurturing new directors
•
Dies 1956 - In his will he provided instructions that a stiletto
be placed in his heart and that he be buried in a steel coffin
so that his corpse could not be eaten by worms
BRECHT ON THEATRE
...Looking around one discovers more or less
motionless bodies in a curious state - they seem
to be contracting their muscles in a strong
physical effort, or else to have relaxed them after
a violent strain... they have their eyes open, but
they don’t look, they stare... they stare at the
stage as if spellbound, which is an expression
from the Middle Ages, an age of witches and
obscurantists.
How long are our souls going to have to leave
our ‘gross’ bodies under cover of darkness to
penetrate into those dream figures up on the
rostrum, in order to share their transports that
would otherwise be denied to us.
The work of an actor?
On the stage the actor is surrounded
entirely by fictions... the actor must be
able to regard all this as though it were
This might be thought to be a course of
true, as though he were convinced that
instruction for conjurers, but in fact it is a course
all that surrounds him on the stage is a
of acting, supposedly according to
living reality and, along with himself, he
Stanislavsky’s method. One wonders if a
must convince the audience as well. This
technique that equips an actor to make an
is the central feature of our method of
audience see rats where there aren’t any can
work on the part... Take any object, a cap
really be all thats suitable for discerning the
for example; lay it on a table or the floor
truth. Given enough alcohol it doesn’t take
and try and regard it as though it were a
acting to persuade almost anybody that they
rat; make believe that it is a rat and not a
are seeing rats: pink ones.
cap... Picture what sort of rat it is; what
size, colour? We thus commit ourselves
BRECHT ON THEATRE
to believe quite naively that the object
before us is something other than it is
and, at the same time, learn to compel
the audience to believe.
RAPAPORT: THE WORK OF THE
ACTOR (1936)
THE MODERN THEATRE IS THE EPIC
THEATRE (1930)
• Dramatic
Theatre
•
Epic Theatre
• Plot
•
Narrative
•
turns the spectator into an observer
•
arouses the capacity for action
•
provokes the spectator to make decisions
• experience
•
picture of the world
• the
•
spectator is made to face something
• implicates
the spectator in a
situation
• wears
down the capacity for
action
• provides
spectator with
sensations
spectator is involved in
something
THE MODERN THEATRE IS THE EPIC
THEATRE (1930)
•
Epic Theatre
•
Argument
•
Dramatic Theatre
•
Suggestion
•
instinctive feelings are preserved
•
brought to the point of recognition
•
the spectator is in the thick of things
•
the spectator stands outside and studies
•
the human being is taken for granted
•
the human being is the object of inquiry
•
humans do not change
•
humans can and do change
•
eyes on the finish
•
eyes on the process
THE MODERN THEATRE IS THE EPIC
THEATRE (1930)
•
•
•
Epic Theatre
•
each scene for itself
•
montage
Dramatic Theatre
one scene gives way to another
•
Growth
•
linear development
•
curves
•
evolutionary determinism
•
jumps
•
human being as a fixed point
•
human being as a process
•
thought determines being
•
social being determines thought
•
reason
•
feeling
VERFREMDUNGSEFFEKT
•
This is a big German word with
a very big meaning.
•
It is made up of three parts:
•
A noun,
•
An adjective, and
•
A prefix.
VERFREMDUNGSEFFEKT
•
Is a translation (of sorts) of
Victor Schklovsky’s term
‘Ostrannenie’ which literally
means “to make strange”
•
The noun:
•
“Effekt” is exactly the same as
the English word “effect”,
something which produces a
result.
VERFREMDUNGSEFFEKT
•
The adjective:
•
“Fremd” is the German for
“strange”, “alien”, “foreign”.
•
The prefix:
•
“Ver-” is the German prefix
which denotes great strength
or very much.
VERFREMDUNGSEFFEKT
•
Thus the whole word
means:
•
“Something which makes
things we take for granted
look very strange, as if from
another land or time.”
VERFREMDUNGSEFFEKT
•
Brecht used this idea at every
level of making and
performing a play: from
constructing the action to
choice of costumes and
props; from the way actors
use their voices to where a
performance takes place.
VERFREMDUNGSEFFEKT
The V-Effekt consists of turning the object of which one is to be made aware, to which one’s
attention is to be drawn, from something ordinary, familiar, immediately accessible, into
something peculiar, striking and unexpected...
A common use of the V-Effekt is when someone says ‘have you ever really looked carefully at
your watch?’ The questioner knows that I’ve looked at it often enough, and now his question
deprives me of the sight which I’ve grown used to and which accordingly has nothing more to
say to me. I used to look at it to see the time, and now when he asks me in this importunate
way I realise that I have given up seeing the watch itself with an astonished eye...
Brecht: Short Description of a new Acting Technique
Key Features of the V-Effekt
•
Use of Slides/Inter titles
•
Acting style is deliberately
unrealistic
•
Set is minimal
•
Actors ‘drop out of character’ to
sing
•
Mechanics of stage lighting
clearly visible
•
Music used as separate element
The Street Scene
The event has taken place; what you are seeing now is a
repeat. If the scene in the theatre follows the street scene in
this respect then the theatre will stop pretending not to be
theatre, just as the street-corner demonstration admits it is a
demonstration (and does not pretend to be the actual event).
The element of rehearsal in the acting and of learning by heart
in the text, the whole machinery and the whole process of
preparation: it all becomes plainly apparent. What room is left
for experience? Is the reality portrayed still experienced in any
sense?
The Rise and Fall of the City of
Mahagonny (1930)
Execution of Jimmy Gallaher. Many of
you, perhaps will be shocked at what
you are about to see. But ladies and
gentlemen, ask yourselves this
question: “Would I have paid Jimmy
Gallaher’s Debts?” Would you? Are you
sure?
Mother Courage and her Children (1938,
1939, 1941)
Spring 1624. The Swedish
Commander-in-Chief, Count
Oxenstierna, is raising troops in
Dalecarlia for the Polish
campaign. The Canteen
woman, Anna Fierling, known
under the name of Mother
Courage, loses one son
NOT
“WHAT?”
“HOW?
”
“WHY?
”
The Good Person of Szechwan
(1939,1942,1943)
Ladies and gentlemen, don’t feel let down:
We know this ending makes some people frown.
We had in mind a sort of golden myth
Then found the ending had been tampered with.
Indeed it is a curious way of coping:
To close the play, leaving the issue open.
Especially since we live by your enjoyment.
Frustrated audiences mean unemployment.
But what would you suggest?
What is your answer? Nothing’s been arranged.
Should men be better? Should the world be changed?
Or just the gods? Or ought there to be none?
...What sort of measures would you recommend
To help good people to a happy end?
Ladies and gentlemen, in you we trust:
There must be happy endings, must, must, must!
PTOLEMAIC SYSTEM OF THE
COSMOS
COPERNICAN SYSTEM OF THE
COSMOS
The Life of Galileo
(1937,1943,1945,1947)
You see! what do you
see? You see nothing.
You only goggle.
Goggling is not seeing.
The Life of Galileo
The Life of Galileo
(1937,1943,1945,1947)
It is concerned with knowledge, achieved through doubt.
Making knowledge about everything available for
everyone, science strives to make sceptics of them all.
Now the greater part of the population is kept
permanently by their princes, landlords and priests in a
nacreous haze of superstition and outmoded words
which obscure the machinations of these characters...
Our new device of doubt delighted the great public,
which snatched the telescope from our hands and
turned it on its tormentors... I, as a scientist, had a
unique opportunity. In my days astronomy reached the
market-places. In these quite exceptional
circumstances, the steadfastness of one man could
have shaken the world.
BRECHT ON THEATRE
...and make
my curtain half high, don’t seal off the stage!
Leaning back in his chair, let the spectator
Be aware of the busy preparations made for him.
Cunningly: he sees a tinfoil moon
Float down, or a tiled roof
Being carried in: do not show him too much,
But show him something! And let him notice
That you are not wizards,
Friends, but workers...
Die Vorhaenge
Theatre For Pleasure or Theatre for instruction
(1935)
The dramatic theatre’s spectator says:
Yes, I have felt like that too - Just like me
- It’s only natural - It’ll never change The sufferings of this man appall me,
because they are inescapable - That’s
great art; it all seems the most obvious
thing in the world - I weep when they
weep, I laugh when they laugh.
The epic theatre’s spectator
says: I’d never have thought it That’s not the way - That’s
extraordinary, hardly believable
- It’s got to stop -The suffering
of this man appalls me,
because they are unnecessary That’s great art: nothing obvious
in it - I laugh when they weep, I
weep when they laugh.
No Emotional Involvement?
•
Brecht wished for a ‘Scientific
audience’
•
He DID wish the audience to become
involved in the drama
•
The audience must not be passive
(detached)
•
Caucasian Chalk Circle even has a
“Cliffhanger”!
•
They must be INTELLECTUALLY
involved
The Structure of Epic Theatre
•
Montage-like construction. Each
scene stands independently from
each other
•
Intended to divide rather than unite
the spectators - audience treated as
individuals rather than mass
•
Often uses obvious narrator figure to
emphasise that the story is ‘long ago
and far away’
The Structure of Epic Theatre
•
Linear character development is
abandoned - we rarely get to see a
character’s “Inner Life”
•
Audience are often encouraged to
feel the opposite of the character’s
emotions - “I laugh when they weep, I
weep when they laugh”
•
“Epic” is the way he told his stories,
but the components of this style
changed from play to play.
•
Epic is constantly under development
Pirate Jenny
(Lotte Lenya)
Tango-Ballad