LATVIJAS UNIVERSITĀTE
Līga Ulberte
EPISKĀ TEĀTRA PIEREDZE EIROPĀ UN LATVIJĀ
*
EPIC THEATRE
IN EUROPE AND LATVIA
*
ERFAHRUNG DES EPISCHEN THEATERS IN EUROPA UN
LETTLAND
Promocijas darba kopsavilkums
Rīga 2007
EPIC THEATRE IN EUROPE AND LATVIA
GENERAL CHARACTERISATION OF
THE DOCTORAL DISSERTATION
The research is devoted to the theory of epic theatre by German dramatist,
stage director and theatre theoretician Bertolt Brecht (1898-1956),
development of the theory in 1920s and its further evolution, as well as its
application in stage directing in Europe, including Latvia, in the context of
socio-political events of the period after World War II and as a paradigm of the
modernist theatre.
Bertolt Brecht's epic theatre and the method of physical action developed by
Konstantin Stanislavsky are the two main systems used in theatre which have
most significantly influenced the means of expression in stage direction and
acting in 20th century Europe. Due to transformations, these systems manifest
themselves in a pure, classic form, as well as in forms which have interacted
and have become integrated other theatre systems (Antonin Artaud's theatre of
cruelty, Jerzy Grotowsky's ritual, as well as post-modern theatre of the 21st
century).
Birth of the epic theatre is genetically related to the birth of modernism
in European (in particular German) theatre in the beginning of the 20th century.
Modernism is influenced by Richard Wagner's opinion of the theatre as the
synthesis of the arts, Friedrich Nietzsche's formula on the birth of theatre out of
the spirit of music, Sigmund Freud's idea on the relation between the conscious
and the subconscious, as well as Gordon Craig's theory of the Uber-marionette.
The above-mentioned theories most significantly reform the concepts of
theatre space and acting by focusing on a stage without an apron, i.e., the
visible border between the stage and the audience, as well as on the actor's
body as a plastic figure controlled by subconscious impulses.
Max Reinhardt was the most notable German theatre director of 1920s; he
was proficient in the aesthetics of Naturalism, Symbolism, Expressionism and
Realism, and he created a new type of synthetic theatre which combines all
means of expression to reveal the play's theme, to create the atmosphere and to
manifest theatricality as an aesthetic value in itself.
Besides Modernism, the birth of epic theatre is influenced by the sociopolitical situation in Germany in the 1920s and 1930s. The emotional and
physical consequences of World War I, depression and scepticism created by
the global economic crisis, as well as an Utopian belief in the positive experience of constructing socialism in Russia, a perception created by successful
Soviet propaganda, kindles the passion of Western left-wing intelligentsia,
including Bertold Brecht, for Marxism and inspires politicisation of the theatre.
Because of a desire for a theatre which reflects the reality of the relevant time
and suggests ways to improve it, in the 1910s and 1920s several proletarian
groups are established in Germany; from them develops Brecht predecessor's
and kindred spirit's Erwin Piscator's practical stage directing and political
theory of theatre, which later will have a typological relation to the epic theatre.
Although, since 1933 Brecht had been living in exile, where he wrote the
majority of his most significant works, the role of a sceptical attitude towards
the audience's emotional participation while watching a play - a characteristic
of his theory - is probably also influenced by the ideology of German national
socialists. In particular, Brecht opposes the Nazi-propagated hypnotic impact
of art on the crowd, which thus loses the rational ability of an individual to
think and resist.
Because of the long time spent in exile, Brecht's career in stage directing is
short; therefore, the use of elements characteristic of the epic theatre are most
clearly revealed in works of other stage directors who were active in Europe in
the second half of the 20th century.
Brecht's plays and their aesthetics of modernism entered the Soviet Union,
including theatre in the Baltics, during the time of thawing in 1960s; it was as a
protest against the canon of socialistic realism and a manifestation of the
theatre's desire to use neutral means of expression. The pioneers of this
aesthetics are Yury Lubimov and Mark Zakharov in Russia, Voldemar Panso
and Jaan Tooming in Estonia, Juozas Miltinis and Jonas Vaitkus in Lithuania,
and Peteris Petersons and Ādolfs Šapiro in Latvia.
Research materials
Taking into consideration the specific character of the theatre arts and
the relevant subject, theoretical manifestos of certain theatre models, plays,
and certain stage presentations are studied and compared in the doctoral
dissertation. Therefore, several thematic groups of research materials can
be distinguished. The first group includes Brecht's plays, his theoretical
writings and the rather short period of practical stage directing in 1920s before
exile and in 1950s after his return to the German Democratic Republic at the
theatre company Berliner Ensemble. The second group contains a correlation of
the epic theatre with other aesthetic systems - Konstantin Stanislavsky's
psychological realism, or emotional authenticity, Antonin Artaud's theatre of
cruelty, intellectual and documentary drama, and postmodernism concepts.
Third group is related to the use of the epic theatre instruments in the plays
directed by Heiner Müller, Peter Weiss, Giorgio Strehler, Peter Stein, Yury
Lubimov, Robert Sturua, Anna Lace, Peteris Petersons, Adolfs Sapiro and
others. The choice of specific persons and plays is based in their experimental
and innovative character, as well as diverse times and places of activity, which
directly influences their relation to the epic theatre. The dramatist and stage
director Heiner Müller is the most vivid ideologue who was a leader of
Berliner Ensemble after Brecht's death; his works contain characteristics of the
epic and post-modern theatre. Peter Stein's theatre Schaubühne was located in
Western Berlin, and his plays are the best example of epic principles in an FRG
theatre. Documentary plays and theoretical principles of the German writer
Peter Weiss, who lived in Sweden, gave the name to documentary drama of
1960s and 1970s; they reveal contradictions between Brecht's ideology and
perception of technology in socialist countries and in the free world. In the
Soviet Union, Brecht's traditions were the most creatively adapted by the
Russian stage director Yury Lubimov, who was working at the Taganka
Theatre in Moscow, and the Georgian theatre director Robert Sturua. In Latvia,
the chief adapters were persons who personally knew Bertolt Brecht (Anna Lace
and Bernhards Reihs), who were openly influenced by Brecht's beliefs in
forming their own theory of the theatre (Pēteris Pētersons and poetic theatre),
or who were the most successful in staging Brecht's plays (Ādolfs Šapiro).
The aim and tasks of the doctoral dissertation
The aim of the research is to prove the significance of epic theatre principles in the modern theatre and drama not only in Brecht's works but also in
completely different works and productions.
Tasks of the research:
1) to give a systematic overview on Brecht's theoretical views, their
influencing factors and reflection in his own works;
2) to describe (characteristics, general impression and definition of director's artistic orientation) and to analyse (namely, to the objective analysis
of the artistic structure of a work from the perspective of its conceptual
and communicative content and form) the plays of the above-mentioned
directors representing the epic theatre by distinguishing epic theatre
categories and their functional relations;
3) to assess the opinions formed during the course of time, including the
Soviet period, on the suitability of Brecht's plays and principles for the
stage, as well as to evaluate the role of specific persons in the reception
of Brecht's ideas.
Theoretical basis of the doctoral dissertation and
research methods
The research is based on the Brecht's theory of epic theatre, as well as on the
comments on plays, actors and the stage made by Gordon Craig, Konstantin
Stanislavsky, Erwin Piscator, Antonin Artaud, Peter Brook, Peter Weiss,
Giorgio Strehler, Heiner Muller, Bernhards Reihs and other stage directors. For
the description of the German theatre of the first half of the 20th century, the
author has used the research materials of Erika Fischer-Lichte, Friedrich
Michael, Hans Daiber, Ruth Freydank, Manfred Braunek and others. In
reconstruction of the plays, the author has used articles of German, Russian
and Latvian theatre researchers and critics.
In the analysis of Bertolt Brecht's views, principles of the epic theatre and
certain plays, a combination of methods has been used; that makes it possible
to view Brecht's theatre model as a process having certain characteristics. The
following basic methods have been used:
* historically genetic method, which considers the historical conditions of
the development of epic theatre theory by synthesising it with the socioanalytic approach - analysis of the structure of various politic regimes
and their impact on the arts;
* the hermeneutic approach has been used in assessing plays because it
views the production as an artistic whole and respects the functionality of
its individual elements.
The following additional methods have been used in the study of specific
aspects:
* comparative method has been used in comparing various models of the
theatre;
* the anthropologic method and psychoanalytical approach have been used
in describing certain aspects of Bertolt Brecht's, Anna Lāce's and
Bernhards Reihs' personality;
* the semiotic approach has been used in the analysis of post-modern plays
by Heiner Müller and Botho Strauss.
Anatoly Smelyansky, Boris Zingerman, Konstantin Rudnicky, Michail
Shvidkoy, Natalya Krimova and other Russian theatre researchers have written
on the functionality of Brecht's traditions in the Soviet era.
During the Soviet era, the majority of publications in Latvian on Brechtian
traditions were written by Bernhards Reihs, Anna Lāce and Pēteris Pētersons;
Lilija Dzene, Līvija Akurātere, Valentīna Freimane, Viktors Hausmanis, Silvija
Feinberga, Anda Burtniece, Silvija Radzobe, Valda Čakare, Edīte Tišheizere,
Guna Zeltiņa; other theatre researchers have written on the principles of the
epic theatre from the perspective of play analysis. In the post-Soviet period, the
aesthetics and influence of Brecht's plays on modern works have been analysed
by the literary critic Benedikts Kalnačs. Kalnačs' essay on Bertolt Brecht's
works, included in the scientific monograph Vācu literatūra un Latvija (18901945) [German literature and Latvia (1890-1945)], is the most extensive and
the most detailed publication on this subject written in Latvian.
New contribution of the doctoral dissertation
Outlines of the epic theatre's experience encountered in the works of
various stage directors have been described in Ieva Zole's monograph
Pēteris Pētersons, a trilogy on the history of theatre: Latvijas teātris. 70. gadi,
Latvijas teātris. 80. gadi, Latvijas teātris. 20.gs. 90. gadi un gadsimtu mija
[Theatre in Latvia in the 1970s; Theatre in Latvia in the 1980s; Theatre in
Latvia in the 1990s and the turn of centuries], as well as the scientific monographs 20.gadsimta teātra režija pasaulē un Latvijā [Theater Directing in the
World and Latvia in the 20th century] and Teātra režija Baltijā [Theatre
Directing in the Baltics]. However, complete and comprehensive research on
the use of the epic theatre techniques in European, including the Soviet
Union and Latvia, has not been carried out. Therefore this doctoral dissertation is a new contribution to the subject. It is the first study of the Latvian
theatre arts which analyses the correlation between the epic theatre and other
aesthetic systems, particularly, relations between the epic and postmodern
theatre, including Heiner Müller's works. There has been no overview on the
production traditions of Brecht's plays in the Latvian theatre; also, the activities
of Anna Lāce have not been analysed by modern research methods.
Structure of the doctoral dissertation
In keeping with the research tasks, the doctoral dissertation consists of three
chapters and relevant subchapters. The first subchapter of Chapter 1
describes the historical situation in Germany and the German theatre at the
beginning of the 20th century which provided fertile ground for the development of various types of Modernism. The traditions of Expressionism and
political theatre have been studied in more detail, and particular attention has
been paid to the work of the stage director Erwin Piscator. The second
subchapter of Chapter 1 contains a description of Bertolt Brecht's life and
work, as well as the development of epic theatre theory. Chapter 2 analyses
the epic theatre in Europe; subchapters are devoted to the following topics:
1) Brecht's Berliner Ensemble under his management and after his death, when
the dramatist and stage director Heiner Muller became the leading ideologue of
this theatre; 2) tradition of the documentary drama whose foundations were
laid by Peter Weiss; 3) activities of stage director Giorgio Strehler (Italia),
Peter Stein (Germania), Yury Lubimov (Russia) and Robert Sturua (Georgia).
Chapter 3 analyses the theatre in Latvia; subchapters are devoted to the
following subjects: 1) productions of Brecht's plays during the pre-war period;
2) transformation of Brechtian traditions in the works
of his contemporaries Anna Lace and Bernhards Reihs; 3) the most significant
example of the epic theatre in the period from 1945 to 2007, with particular
attention devoted to the activities of Pēteris Pētersons and Ādolfs Šapiro.
Description of the contents of the doctoral dissertation
The Introduction contains a description of the new research contribution of
this study, sets forth the aims, tasks, and structure of the doctoral dissertation
and briefly describes research methods and problems. The Introduction also
gives a detailed overview of the references used in the doctoral dissertation.
Chapter 1. Theory of Epic Theatre
Intellectual thought in Europe of the first half of the 20th century was
significantly influenced by Nietzsche's ideas, in particular his philosophic
essays Thus Spoke Zarathustra and The Birth of Tragedy Out of the Spirit of
Music. Nietzsche puts a life in the centre of attention, and with the pronouncement "God is dead" he destroys the traditional criteria of value and leaves the
choice between good and evil up to the individual. Even in the arts the
individual becomes a problem to himself; the conflict arises not between the
individual and society but within the hero - between the hero's conscious and
subconscious. Nietzsche's thesis that the theatre was born out of the spirit of
music is also topical. Music becomes the new aesthetic paradigm from which
several aesthetic concepts of the theatre are derived: ideas on the revival of the
mythical dimension in theatre and theatre as a festival of life, Wagner's view of
theatre as the art of synthesis, which is most fully expressed in the form of an
antique festival; the view of theatre as an anti-traditional and autonomous form
of art. There is increased interest in public theatre, as well as a change in the
understanding of the art of acting.
In Germany, architects are also involved in theatre reform because the
theatre as a national festival and unifying force in society cannot be produced
in a classic theatre building on a traditional stage. The new theatre should unite
art and life; therefore, a box-like stage is replaced by an arena or amphitheatre
whose outer border - apron - is removed.
Drama is the main literary genre in Germany at the beginning of the
century; it also influences the development of the theatre. Gerhart
Hauptmann's works are particularly significant because the three stages of his
work - naturalistic, symbolic and neo-romantic - clearly reflect the intellectual
changes in the Germany's culture life during the relevant period. The beginning
of the 20th century in German theatre is characterised by a change in the
perception of the essence of theatre's - a transition from illusoriness to antiillusoriness. The result is a gradual deliteralisation of theatre and the formation
of a new understanding about the stage director's role. The season of
1904/1905 in Germany marks the beginning of the view that the stage director,
not the dramatist, is the true creator of a play. When Max Reinhardt became
the leader of Deutsches Theater in Berlin, he became the dominant figure in
German theatre. In the season of 1917/1918, Reinhardt opened the Junge
Deutschland, a subsidiary of Deutsches Theater, to introduce German audience
to Expressionist drama. For approximately five years, Expressionism became
the dominant trend in the German theatre and significantly influenced Bertolt
Brecht's individuality and works.
Expressionism brings a new generation to the German theatre new in terms
of age and aesthetics. It is a generation also represented by Brecht; it is a
generation of those who were born in the 1890s, survived a war in the 20th
century and entered the world of arts with a foreboding of catastrophe, with
protest, denial and even hate against the older generation. The Expressionists'
perception of the world also provides the theatre with new means of expression:
1) the stage is not a site where a specific action takes place but a visualisation
of the hero's consciousness; 2) experiments with lighting: various parts of the
stage are lighted and put into motion like movie shots - only the leading actor
is allowed to move around the whole stage and constantly be in the spotlight,
while others only move into or out of the light. The stage can be filled with
artificially lighted figures of actors - ghosts - while the leading actor is placed
at the front of the stage at the constantly bright spotlight;
3) the hero's total incompatibility with the rest of the world is manifested.
Protagonists are always lonely not because they are unique (individuality does
not interest Expressionists) but because they are the only ones who have
retained their humanity in contrast to a crowd of faceless marionettes;
4) classic plays are adapted to the political problems of the relevant era.
As a system, Expressionism ceased to exist in German theatre in the mid
1920s; however, its methods are also used later by various German stage
directors, particularly those representing political and epic theatre.
The 1920s brought a new era to the German theatre. Generation of artists
who had recently returned from the war were seeking a theatre which would
reflect contemporary reality and offer new values. The social situation in a
country was favourable for the birth of political theatre.
In the 1920s, German stage director and theoretician Erwin Piscator
(1893-1966) developed German political theatre; he described his experience
and theoretical opinions in the book The Political Theatre. Through abstract
types and posters, Piscator introduced agitprop (agitation and propaganda)
theatre in Europe, i.e., the theatre which is used as a means for propagating a
specific ideology. In the 1920s Piscator developed his own theory of political
theatre which was typologically related to epic and documentary theatre. The
theory was based on the director's conviction that any political event can be
explained, that it is possible to understand the hidden mechanisms and reasons
for all global political processes. Piscator is not interested in objective
reflection of life but in analysis of facts which teach the audience to seek an
active understanding of world. This aspect relates Piscator to the epic theatre
and Brecht, who had a similar goal but different means for achieving it.
Bercht's plays did not present definite facts but in a metaphorical way depicted
socio-historical reasoning. Piscator and Brecht shared the understanding of
epic form: a play is a story, message and reflection of real-life phenomena. In
the mid-1920s Piscator started using the principle of attraction; namely, by
means of editing, certain elements of a play can come into unusual relations
with each other. Piscator uses the classical editing technique of putting shots
together on stage and screen, and simultaneous or parallel editing when action
occurs simultaneously in several areas of a stage.
The period from 1918 to 1922 can be also regarded as the initial period of
Brecht's work; it was characterised by polemics and Expressionism. Brecht did
not adopt the idealistic philosophy of expressionists but he did use the
achievements of their forms. Certain characteristics are common to all Brecht's
plays - namely, works by other authors are used as raw material; social and
political subjects dominate; the aim is to reveal how existing social rules affect
human behaviour; social environment determines the personality of a character,
and that is the author's main interest; plays are composed of mutually related
but at the same time independent episodes which are supplemented with songs
that analyse the action; the majority of plays were written
in cooperation with independent literary colleagues, whose actual contribution
was often underestimated.
Brecht started to develop a theory of epic theatre in the mid-1920s; for the
rest of his life he tried to prove the basic idea of his theory - by studying
reasons for processes and reproducing them on stage, it is possible to
understand and influence society. Thus Brecht's theory offered a new way of
producing plays of previous eras and radically new theatrical thinking.
Brecht's theory of theatre is based on juxtaposition of traditional drama, or
Aristotle's theatre, and epic theatre. The main difference lies in the fact that
dramatic theatre is based on drama - an event which happens in front of the
audience; however, epic theatre is based on a narration about an event. The key
idea of the epic theatre is alienation effect, which helps to distance the
audience from the events occurring on the stage. That can be achieved by
showing something ordinary in an unexpected and extraordinary way, by
making the audience view common phenomena from different angle and to
evaluate them differently, by emphasising the historical nature of phenomena,
and by stressing that all situations can be changed. The effect of alienation,
like Brecht's theoretical ideas in general, can be applied on the level of text,
acting and production.
Chapter 2. Epic Theatre in Europe
Brecht had the first opportunity to try his theory in life only after World
War II, when his first theatre Berliner Ensemble was founded in Berlin. The
time during which Brecht was the theatre manager corresponds to the most
active time of propagating socialistic realism in Eastern Europe; the repertoire
of the theatre was determined by the significant role of drama and social
topicality during the production process. During Brecht's time, each play
staged at the Berliner Ensemble was photographed and published in special
model books (Modellbücher), together with the plot of the play and analysis by
the stage director. From a historical point of view, this conservation of plays is
significant for restoring plays staged at the Berliner Ensemble, however, it does
not help the modern perception of the epic theatre tradition. Creative stagnation
which could be observed at the Berliner Ensemble after Brecht's death also
serves as a testimony of that.
In the 1990s, Heiner Müller (1929-1995) became the ideologue of the
Berliner Ensemble. He was a German writer, dramatist, stage director and
publicist who can be regarded as the most striking and talented person who
continued Brechtian traditions in European theatre arts after Brecht's death.
Furthermore, Müller's work in the theatre and in drama showed the relation
between epic and post-modern theatre and their interaction in the 1980s and
1990s.
Müller's plays were consistently post-modern plotless compilations of
contrasting styles and fragmentary characters from various myths representing
only the essence of the plot or character and staged in a post-modern manner.
The dramatist was interested in the history of the 20th century as a cruel Utopia
and a disharmonious and destructive process. The main difference between
Müller and Brecht was that Brecht believed that society can be influenced or
even changed by theatre, while Müller for approximately the last 20 years of
his life felt a contempt and pity towards society and regarded people as victims
of the system and ideology. The dramatist considered himself a chronicler
whose task was to identify problems without suggesting possible solutions.
However, an era is not reflected through documentation (as in Brecht's plays)
but through deconstruction. Relating various possible signs of the stage with
reality is common for epic and post-modern theatre because both of them
regard reality as something relative.
Post-modern theatre changes several technical elements of epic theatre
to the logical extreme: 1) indifference to the results but interest in the development of the process, thus enabling occurrence of unexpected results;
2) semiotisation as an integral part of a play when each object on stage becomes
a symbol; 3) a clearly theatrical manner of play writing and producing which
reveals the structure of the theatre; 4) perception of reality as a relative and
changeable phenomenon.
In the 1960s and 1970s, documentary drama or documentarism was born in
German drama; its ideological goals were very similar to Brecht's convictions.
The most significant representative of this aesthetics is Peter Weiss (19161982), a German writer, artist and stage director who lived in Sweden. Weiss'
essay The Material and the Models: Notes towards a Definition of Documentary
Theatre (1986) was regarded as the manifesto of the modern political theatre of
its time; its writing was influenced by the reality of intellectual drama and epic
theatre, as well as the complicated political history of Germany.
The aim of the documentary drama and theatre is to provide facts for the
audience's evaluation. The approach of addressing the consciousness of the
audience without disclosing destinies of individual people, thus preventing
audience's emotional involvement and stimulating its critical thinking, is
similar to Brecht's thesis that the epic theatre's audience is merely an observer
(not participant) whose task is to make decisions without emotional
involvement.
Without the political context of a specific era, the artistic value of documentary drama is relatively low because its aim to draw public attention to a particular political, historical or social problem is clearly that of a publicist and can
hardly be generalised. The influence of Brecht's opinions upon Weiss works
cannot be denied; however, it has affected mainly the formal principles of play's
structure and a single narrow ideological aspect which was used by Brecht in
his didactic plays, namely, the desire to show only processes observed in society.
The main difference between documentary drama and epic theatre lies in the
absence of the alienation effect. Documentary plays do not have a mechanism
for distancing the audience/readers from what is being shown/read; on the
contrary, they make the audience the witness of a semingly authentic event.
German play director Peter Stein was interested in his contemporaries as
artists who use their talent as a means of fulfilling their social vocation and
duty. Stein's career as play director, like Müller's, showed a correlation
between epic and post-modern theatre. The effect of alienation in Stein's plays
could be observed on various levels, including, the method of acting and
actions in general. Actors do not create a character. Transformations are shown
directly and unambiguously through a sequence of episodes with various levels
of embodiment. Stein's long-term partner was Botho Strauss, a German postmodern dramatist who worked with scripts of several Stain's plays and created
compilations of Brechtian episodes from uniform, sometimes even clearly
poetic, texts. Classic dialogues were turned into individual monologues, stage
design was supplemented with screens or blackboards which showed not only
the titles of scenes but also messages which were intended to shape the
audience's attitude, as well as documentary insertions. Such a deliberate split
of a single drama text into seemingly unrelated units can be called intentional
epicisation or post-modern conceptual parataxis.
During its prime of activity from 1964 to 1984, the Taganka Theatre in
Moscow managed by Yury Lubimov could be regarded as the most consistent
and successful example of epic theatre in the former USSR. Its experience
proves the fruitful viability of this form of theatre not only in Brecht's productions but also in productions representing completely different types of
drama. In Russian theatre arts, the Taganka Theatre was called the only theatre
- citizen of the stagnation period which staged topical problems, served as a
source of political information, and gave classes in aesthetics; it evoked a
fighting spirit or a state of ecstasy in the audience.
The first play of Brecht that Lubimov produced was The Good Person of
Sezuan, which revealed several characteristics of Lubimov's directing: 1)
interest in showing the lowest stratum of society and common people on the
stage - in the best of Lubimov's plays everyone is a hero, and everyone is a part
of the crowd or people, and each actor can stand at the proscenium alone or
melt into the crowd and still retain his or her personality; 2) polysemy or
metaphor of the stage details - there are usually few objects on the stage, but
each one has its function or meaning, which almost never is illustrative; 3)
audio and plastic elements are as significant as psychological or ideological
aspects; 4) the method of episode editing creates the play's structure; 5) a new
type of relations between audience and the stage. One of the main principles
that Lubimov practiced in his work with actors during rehearsals or the play
was to ensure contact with others actors through the audience, thus broadening
Stanislavsky's circle of attention.
Lubimov's productions in the 1960s and 1980s were among the most
successful examples of epic theatre in European theatre because they contained
formal principles of Brecht's theatre, which were creatively synthesised with
Stanislavsky's and Vakhtangov's experience; they also demonstrated the
possibility of revealing socially active content through theatrically striking
format.
Chapter 3. Epic theatre in Latvia
News about the play The Threepenny Opera, which gained Brecht worldwide fame, reached Latvia very fast - articles on this play were published
already in 1929. The same year in the Riga German Drama Theatre there was
a premiere of The Threepenny Opera, directed by Walter Bauerle. On 10 September 1932, the Daile Theatre held the premiere of the same play; it was
translated by Ēriks Ādamsons and Aleksandrs Čaks, and the director was
Eduards Smiļģis. Those were the only productions of Brecht's plays in Latvia
during his lifetime; they received the audience's criticism, as well as praise,
because of their search for a new form of drama and theatre stylistics.
Anna Lace (1891-1979), play director, actress, theoretician and organiser,
did not produce any of Brecht's plays because of her personal acquaintance
with Brecht and Bernhards Reihs, a researcher of the German theatre; however,
she is often called the first real introducer of epic theatre in Latvia. It is hard to
find evidence of that because Lace's collaboration with Brecht is marginal, and
during her work as a play director in the Valmiera Theatre in the 1940s and
1950s, she was more influenced by Piscator's proletarian and political theatre,
as well as the socialist realism of Soviet art. In assessing Lace's historical role,
her professional career as a play director and theoretician should be
distinguished from her controversial personality because it was probably the
latter which influenced Latvian theatre the most.
Lāce's meetings and friendly relations with Brecht, as well as her influence
on Brecht's personality and work cannot be denied; however, her claim that she
had a great influence on Brecht's method seems exaggerated. It is possible that
Brecht and Lace shared not professional interests but personal congeniality.
In the 1950s Lāce was the chief play director at the Valmiera Theatre. She
staged both Soviet plays and classic plays; however, all of her plays emphasised
social conflicts and ideas. Lace's open rehearsals should be emphasised. She
believed that the audience should be prepared for a play, and, to a certain
extent, the audience should be the co-author; therefore, on the day of the
premiere she published informative and explanatory articles about the play's
author and content in the local media; she also organised open rehearsals in
collective farm clubs and schools, thus encouraging the audience to express
their opinions and talk to the actors. In the beginning of the 1920s, Piscator did
something similar in his Proletarian Theatre in Germany, and in the beginning
of the 1950s, concurrently with Lace, Brecht used the same approach in the
Berliner Ensemble.
Bernhards Reihs is considered one of the most significant theoreticians in
the German theatre of the mid-1920s because he tested his theoretic
assumptions in practical directing. In the articles which were published in the
Latvian language, Reihs quoted Brecht's opinions in reviewing productions of
Brecht's plays and analysing his techniques. Sometimes he inappropriately
used Brecht's name to create the relevant context. Lace wrote several articles
on issues related to theatre and drama, particularly on German political theatre
and Brecht; however, her autobiographies contain many questionable and
probably erroneous facts. It is possible that the influential co-author of Lāce's
books was the educated and scholarly Reihs.
Research activity of Reihs at the end of the 1960s and the beginning of
the 1970s in Latvia can be regarded as serious study and popularisation of
Brecht's works; Lace's directing and conclusions, in contrast, offered narrow
and even a misleading impression about Brecht as a revolutionary and socialistic writer and about herself as the only epigone of Brechtian traditions in
Soviet Latvia.
During the post-war period, interest in Brecht's work arose only after his
death as a result of performances of the Berliner Ensemble's tour in Moscow.
Two Baltic play directors, Latvian Peteris Petersons and Estonian Voldemar
Panso, were the first in the Soviet Union who in 1958 several months apart
staged Brecht's play; they admit seeing the performances on tour. Although,
according to the official interpretation, Brecht was considered a strong
antifascist and ideologically correct writer in the Soviet Union, his plays were
not produced because Brecht's plays were not realistic. Thus, an interest in
Brecht's plays arose only during the period of thawing.
For several reasons, Pēteris Pētersons is regarded as the introducer of epic
theatre techniques in Latvian theatre: 1) he was the first who in the 1950s and
1960s at the Daile Theatre staged modern European intellectual drama in a
theatrically alienated manner; 2) he was the first in the Soviet Union who in
1958 at the Daile Theatre produced Brecht's play The Good Person of Sezuan,
thus starting Brechtian psychologising, which later dominated in the Latvian
theatre; 3) epic drama structures could be found in Petersons' own plays, which
were mainly written in free verse with a mixture of prose and poetry; 4)
Petersons' theoretical works contained several themes based on Brecht's
principles; 5) due to Petersons' plays staged in the 1960s and 1970s, Latvian
theatre studies discussed the concept of a thinking actor, which is typologically
related to Brecht's understanding of rational, analytical actor who can
simultaneously be in and out of the play's character; 6) in the end of the 1960s
and the beginning of the 1970s, Petersons developed his own aesthetics of
poetical theatre which was based on epic theatre principles.
The style of play director Ādolfs Šapiro contained elements of epic theatre;
in his plays he used journalism, an attractive method of scene editing, circus
aesthetics and elements of clownery. Ādolfs Šapiro was the only Latvian play
director who produced four of Brecht's plays (one of the plays was staged
repeatedly), including two plays which were staged in Latvia.
Šapiro's production of The Fear and Misery of the Third Reich at the
Jaunatne Theatre is considered in the history of Latvian theatre the most consistent and talented production of Brecht's plays, which adheres to the principles of epic theatre. This play began the series of Šapiro's political plays on the
confrontation between the totalitarian power and the people. In subsequent
productions of Brecht's plays - The Threepenny Opera in Tallinn and Mother
Courage in Samara - Šapiro replaces the social issues with grotesque theatrality.
In general, in the Soviet Union creative learning of Brecht's principles
started in the beginning of the 1960s. In Latvia there have been eight premieres
of Brecht's plays in the 1960s as well. During the following decades,
professional interest in Brecht's plays declined: none were produced in the
1970s; four plays were staged in the 1980s; five in the 1990s; and four between
2000 and 2007. The wave of popularity in the 1960s and the subsequent decline
indicates that initial interest lay in the socially active content of Brecht's plays,
which could be expressed in differently and attractively in contrast to the lifeless and tiresome socialistic reality of the 1950s. Probably there was the hope
that by retaining a contextual link with a reality, the sceptical Brecht would
help to avoid the false optimism which the Soviet arts, including theatre, presented as realism and that he would also diversify the means of expression.
The lack of interest in Brecht's works experienced in the 1970s and 1980s
indicates a switch in priorities. The aesthetics of the epic theatre demanded a
greater influence by the director on the play. In the 1970s socially active
subjects were less topical in Latvian theatres, and play directors sought various
meta-languages which could encode the social processes under discussion.
Elements of the epic theatre were more successful in the poetic theatre and in
intellectualisation of classic works than in the production of Brecht's plays.
In the period from the mid-1980s to 2007, twelve of Brecht's plays were
produced, including five diploma productions by actors or play directors. It
means that Brecht's experience is often used as training material for actors.
Student productions ensure consistent ensemble acting, where it is essential for
young actors to show themselves as personalities and as a group.