Bertolt Brecht & EPIC THEATRE

Bertolt Brecht (1898-1956) was a famous German playwright and poet. He and his friend Erwin Piscator began a political style of theatre in Germany in the 1920s.

Brecht started to write political poetry and plays at an early age about social issues. He was branded a trouble-maker at school and got expelled for writing anti-war poems.

As a young man, Brecht was drafted into the army, but avoided fighting by serving in the medical area. He saw the gruesome results of war first hand.

Brecht lived in a war ravaged country. Germany had lost the First World War. He had witnessed death, destruction and great poverty during the depression, and great political unrest in Germany. He saw a destroyed civilisation and began to search for a philosophy.

Brecht became interested in the Karl Marx’s Theories of Socialism. Marxist theories were about social justice, and were critical of Capitalism. Marxist ideas about Capitalism focus on the division of labour in the work force. 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.

“In the world of capital, where everything is for sale, all human relations, lives, and desires become commodified”

Brecht did not think human beings should be treated as commodities or used and abused by people with power.

Brecht saw Hitler come to power. Nazi Germany became dangerous. Brecht was high on the hit list because of his critical political writing so he had to escape from Germany. He continued to write in Russia, then the USA during the Second World War. He was questioned by US officials for his political writing, and had to leave quickly for Europe.

Epic theatre came about at a time when Melodrama and Realism and Naturalism were popular as theatre forms. Naturalism plays were stories written for the middle classes and rich. The naturalism style was to try and recreate real life on stage. The idea was for the audience to believe the story and characters in the play are real.

Brecht thought that Naturalism and Realism failed to make the audience think about society and life, especially the injustices of war, violence and poverty. He thought Naturalism made the audience lose themselves in the story, and forget to think about the social causes of life’s difficulties

Brecht developed a new acting style and dramatic plot structure which was designed to make the audience question and think about what they were watching. This became known as Epic theatre.

Brechts’ style of theatre became known as Epic Theatre partly because his plays were epic in structure. This means they were long stories with many different time periods, characters and settings. Unlike Naturalistic dramas the plays made comments about the action as it went along.

The key idea in Epic drama structure is Die Verfremdungseffekt (The distancing effect) this term describes the plot structure and acting style in Epic Theatre. Die Verfremdungseffekt is designed to make the audience think about what is happening on stage, but to remain detached from the play.

Die Verfremdungseffekt was used to direct the audience’s attention to something new. This was done by getting a rhythm in a scene going, then breaking it. When the rhythm is interrupted, this causes the audience to be drawn in to thinking about what they are seeing, rather than getting lost in the emotion, story and characters.

This interruption gives the spectator a sudden jolt and this allows the spectator to distance him/her self from the plot and emotion, and causes him/her to think about what they are seeing.

“Epic theatre turns the spectator into an observer, but arouses his capacity for action, forces him to take decisions...the spectator stands outside, studies” Bertolt Brecht

The idea with Die Verfremdungseffekt was to constantly remind the audience they were in a theatre, watching a play. These techniques all break the illusion of drama as a story a story we can get lost in. Instead we are constantly reminded that these are actors communicating ideas and situations to us.

Here are some of the ways Die Verfremdungseffekt is used to break the rhythm in Epic Theatre, and to remind us we are in a theatre watching a play.

Die Verfremdungseffekt Plot Structure and Acting Style

• The play is always about a social or political issue, not an individual issue.
• Actors break the fourth wall by speaking directly to the audience at emotional moments.
• Narrators interrupt the scene and comment on the action or story.
• The morals are pointed out, but the answers are not given.
• Tragic scenes are interrupted with poems and songs that comment on the action
• Never one hero, but a variety of characters
• Tragic scenes are followed by comic commedia style scenes
• Scenes are short, numerous and contrast e.g. a happy scene is followed by a death scene
• Humour is often used to break a scenes rhythm
• No suspense is created; signs and placards are used to announce what each scene is about, or what happens next.
• The plot jumps around events, settings and characters, Non-linear time structure.
• Emotion is used to make the audience think, but not to become lost inside.
• Two contrasting points of view on the issue are shown, (Dialectic) but the audience are not given a solution, they have to think about it.
• Gestus means the simplest way of stating something. It was used to describe the events that happen. For example in the middle of a stabbing scene the action might freeze, a narrator might come on stage and describe what she is seeing.
• Actors would sometimes have one gesture that sums up their character. This was a from of gestus.
• Actors played multiple parts, and would make some costume and character changes on stage.
• Actors would be storytellers by sometimes speaking in past tense, or in third person.
• Actors would sometimes speak the stage directions aloud
• No solution to the moral problem is given at the end. The audience are left to think.

Die Verfremdungseffekt Staging & Technical Style

• The stage was mostly bare with minimal set and props.
• Backdrops, signs and screens are used to project slogans or announcements about the scene or story
• The lights are bright and harsh, no colour or mood lighting is used, the lighting board and operator are in full view of the audience
• Set changes are done in full light by the actors
• Props and costumes were carefully researched and appropriate for the time and setting, but they were used simply and sparsely to symbolise what was important.
• Any music or song was used to comment on the action or contrast with the action. Music was not used to intensify mood or emotion.