Bertolt Brecht
And Epic Theatre
“Actors should not impersonate, but should narrate
the characteristics of a person”
Words you need to know
• Allegory/ allegorical (In a play)- a
character, event, prop etc. that represents
(symbolises) a deeper moral or political
meaning. (eg Animal farm is communism)
• Didactic/ didacticism- Intending to teach
(in a play something didactic is there to
reveal the playwright/ director’s intention/
message)
Gestus
• Gestus- Gestus is an acting skill (voice, Body
language/ gesture etc.) that represents social
meaning either for a character or for the whole
scene.
• Eg a perverted character may walk with a
pronounced crotch, a character symbolising the
government may be old and blind.
• These skills are very useful in multi-roling.
Exercise 1
• In a pair pick two famous people/
institutions (government, companies, fast
food) and try to use Gestus to allegorically
say something about them.
• This may be a freeze or a repeated
movement- you may wish to interact or
stand next to each other.
Brecht vs Stan
• While Stanislavski (Naturalism) was concerned
with audience willing to believe what they saw
was on stage, Brecht’s (Epic Theatre) main goal
was for the actors to present the message
behind the play.
• Brecht wished to ‘break the forth wall’ audiences
should not use ‘the willing suspension of
disbelief’, but should be aware they are watching
a play in order to engage with the messages it
presents (didacticism)- rather than getting
caught up in sympathising with the protagonist.
Epic Theatre
Through Epic Theatre Brecht sought to use theatre as a
tool for social change. This was in reaction to the
‘dramatic theatre’ of the time which Brecht felt
encouraged the audience to be overwhelmed with
passion and emotion, as opposed to calm and detached
and therefore capable of contemplation and judgement.
To achieve this Brecht was constantly striving for ways to
break the illusion of the 4th wall on stage, getting the
audience to leave the theatre considering the messages/
questions presented in the play
Verfremdungseffeckt
• Also know as• He used a series of techniques to
alienation, distancing
try and achieve thiseffect, V-effeckt
• Gestus,
• Representational props/ Representation
• This is the name given costume- changing in front of the audience.
to what Brecht was
trying to achieve, but • Cast are ensemble not individual actors
using his techniques • Tableaux,
the audience were
• Placards,
alienated
• Narration/ third person acting/ direct
(verfremdungs) rather address of the audience,
than drawn into the
character’s emotional • Discordant music,
• Episodic structure and
state.
• Historification.
Task 2
• (you aren’t getting marked for how good these
are, so just go for it- they are to illustrate a point,
not show off how good you are.)
• Group 1- Jack, Emily R, Tara, Phoebe (and IB
Shannon later)
• Group 2- Grace, Emily W, Shannon, Vicky
• Group 3- Joe, Fabien, Danielle, Erin
Create this episode as a short performance- we
will see these as we go through the techniques.
• Group A- Three Penny Opera As an
Ensemble, Use Tableux, Gestus, montage
and narration
• Group B- Laramie Project (not a Brecht
play) Use Placards, narration and Gestus
• Group C- Mother Courage and Her
Children use representation props/
costume and gestus to multi-role as the
characters
Ensemble
• Brecht, as a marxist, did not like the idea of one actor
being a ‘star’ above the other actors- therefore he saw
his cast as an ensemble where each actor played many
roles.
• This helps with the Verfremdungseffeckt as the audience
seeing an actor in more than one role stops them
believing it is real. Brecht pushed this further by having
the actors change costume/ character in front of the
audience and often sit and watch the play out of
character when not in a scene.
http://youtu.be/PYQQyP_9RfE?t=15s
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PYQQyP_9RfE
• Actors should not ‘get into character’, but instead adopt a
new Gestus to present a new character to the audiencethey should focus on what they represent, not what their
motivations/ objectives are.
Ensemble 2
• Actors also often multi- role using mask, a device that
further alienates the audience.
• Also most characters were deliberately 2 dimensionalthey are given names like “The Priest”, “The Cook”,
“Soldier 1” to make it clear that they are there to
represent something, not to be seen as a character with
Given Circumstance
• In Caucasian Chalk Circle all the ‘bad’ characters wore
masks- this instantly meant the audience knew who were
not trust worthy
Representational Props/ costume
• A prop that represents a character, rather
than a realistic set/ costume, a single prop
or piece of clothing represents the whole,
eg
• The actress in the picture
Wears a wig and coat to
Represent a naval officer,
Bust still a dress on below
Representational props cont.
• The prop/ costume may also represent
something allegorically about the character.
• Eg this character holds
His tuba like a gun,He is multi
rolling as a Soldier, but the
Prop Represents an
‘instrument Of death.
• Masks were sometimes used,
usually to allegorically show a character as
‘faceless’ to society (homeless, prostitute) or
untrustworthy
Tableaux
• Tableaux is another word for freeze frame, you
do A level now- use it!
• Brecht would have actors freeze at key moments
where something was revealed (eg a character’s
greed)- the image would be carefully
constructed to show this to an audience.
• eg
Imagine this is a play, the man in
the foreground has presented
himself as a good person, freezing
at this point clearly shows the
audience he is a thief and holding
this moment breaks the naturalism
(forth wall) highlighting it as
significant to the audience
Tableaux/ montage
• Alternatively, Brecht would have the actors form a series
of tableaux to present the message or to show a
character’s journey without the audience getting
emotionally attached.
• This is called a Montage.
• eg if someone because an alcoholic, if the audience see
this as a series of pictures rather than the actors playing
out someone falling into the disease, then they are less
emotionally attached
• also through this symbols are much more obvious- (eg
the alcoholic maybe allegory for a country poisoning
itself, so the images could play under a song or
projection about global warming)
Narration
• Narration breaks the forth wall as
• It directly addresses the audience, acknowledging they are there
• It can be used to present a character’s dilema in the third person.
• Eg in Caucasian Chalk Circle a character has taken a baby from a
war torn area, but as a refugee can’t feed it. She has a dilemma or
weather to keep the baby she has bonded with, or leave it with a
family who can afford to feed it and take care of it. Rather than have
the character perform a monologue about her dilemma, a narrator
presents her dilemma in the third person- this means the audience
consider the impact of her decision on the baby, rather than her
emotional reaction to the situation
• Also actors may step out of character and narrate their own
situation, speaking directly to the audience (from the Good Soul of
Szechuan)
– Shu Fu (addresses the audience) What do you think of me, ladies and
gentlemen? Could such an esteemed man do more? Be more unselfish? More
understanding? More forward looking?
Placards
• Placards are cards with messages to the
audience written on them. Often with
statistics or locations, or to replace a prop
(eg a card saying briefcase instead of an
actual briefcase.)
Placards were also often used in
the form of projections- most
modern Epic plays employ
projection of video to draw a
modern parallel from Brecht’s
texts.
Discordant music
•
This can be two things- either dissonance (notes that do not harmonise) or
that the tone of the song does not suit the atmosphere of the scene.
•
Mac The Knife, is a fairly well known crooner number- upbeat and sang with
a smile to a cheering audience.
•
But originally it is from Three Penny Opera and is about MacHeath- who in
the song murders 3 men, rapes 6 women, and hovers in the background. In
fact the actor comes out of character and sings the song about Macheath
•
Brecht often used music for narration and with direct address, ensemble
presenting tableaux, third person narration in order to achieve the
Verfremdungseffeckt.
•
Also, his actors were often not good singers so the songs, even if only
meant to be discordant in atmosphere, were usually discordant in musical
tone as well.
Historification
• Is an allegorical technique used by Brecht to criticise
current political issues by setting his plays in the past
and different countries and using these events as
allegory• The Resistable Rise Of Artuaro Ui is set in Chicago in
the 1920s, but is actually about the rise of the Nazi party
in the 1930s Germany.
• This would have been a good way to get around
criticising Hitler (who Brecht had to flee after this), but
actually it is used to distance the audience- the audience
see how Ui is a horrible figure who is motivated by greed
and power, then Placards, Gestus or projection are used
to make it clear Ui is allegorically representing Hitler
Episodic structure
• A play with ‘scenes’ usually have a structure where one is directly
related to the other and a fairly consistent (and short) period of time
between them, each scene building on the last with character
developing.
• Epic plays have episodes, where the gap between scenes is often
years and characters do not necessarily develop from one scene to
the next.
• Scenes would sometimes feature a montage- a series of tableaux
designed to show many things happening over a long period of time
or a rather unsubtle way to reveal the allegory (showing characters
with a Gestus that clearly shows them to be their real life counter
part- eg hitler sallute in Ui), now this is more often done with
projection
• Life of Galileo
• Good Soul (woman) of Szechuan
• Where can you spot Brecht’s techniques in
these performances (they are not that
good, but use a few of them)
Verfremdugnseffeckt (Alienation
effect)
• The V-effect is the distancing of the audience
from a play, its purpose is to remind them that
they are watching a play and should not believe
what they are seeing is real. He feels that
emotional investment in the characters distracts
from the message that the play is trying to
present.
• “stripping the event of its self-evident, familiar,
obvious quality and creating a sense of
astonishment and curiosity about them”.
Homework- Do this for next lesson…
• As with Stanislavski- write out the Brecht
techniques and describe briefly your
experience in working with them- You can
also refer to anything you saw from other
performers or in the clips of Resistable
Rise of Arturo Ui, Three Penny Opera, Life
of Galileo or Good Soul/ Person/ Woman
of Szechuan.