Bertolt Brecht's Analysis of the Limitations of Naturalist Theater

‘...there was an early crisis within the chosen form of modernist Naturalism... [which] was at once physically convincing and intellectually insufficient... [T]here were, in opposite directions, crucial areas of experience which the language and behaviour of the living room could not articulate or fully interpret.’ (Williams, 1989:85)
Analyse why and how Bertolt Brecht decided to address the limitations of Naturalist theatre.

Throughout the 20th century, the German poet, playwright and director, Bertolt Brecht stood as one of the most important theatrical reformers. Seeing plays as tools for social and political activism, rather than purely having an entertainment purpose, his theatrical lexicon was given birth to. He created and advanced the form of 'epic theatre ', the sheer purpose of which was to encourage the audience to think critically instead of enjoying the performance. This process involved techniques such as the 'Alienation effect ', playing with gesticulation, opposing other dramatical theories or genres such as the one from Stanislavsky and Aristotle, or even have the set, the décor, etc. as props to accentuate his acting theory. The 'Brechtian ' style of theatre is therefore only understood when looking at the creation of his theory. “The social problem addressed should not be resolved in theatre, but people should be inspired to go out and solve it”. (Kerry, Brecht and Artaud http://bit.ly/tcYDVI, 2nd of November)

Looking at the concept of 'epic theatre ' at this point would be like looking at the last page of a book and skipping the main part. To understand his perceptions on theatre, a look at the very first page of the book; a look at the creation of his theory, will be necessary.
For starters, Brecht 's theory was mainly created through other genres or ways of interpreting theatre that he did not like. Theatre that was only devoted to the bourgeois society, the conception of the fourth wall or the use of naturalism in melodrama are just a few of the many approaches that Bertolt disapproved of, as they all lacked of the same thing: interaction and awareness of the audience.
Having said that, Brecht 's quarrel with the Aristotelian dramaturgy was the one that made him realise that he would never want to go into a similar direction. As catharsis by terror or pity, identification with actors on stage or even the subject of man to God, were unfolded to the audience during each of Aristotle 's plays, Brecht 's idea of how theatre should not be, became stronger. This was partly, because he had already been influenced by the opposite direction in theatre, shown throughout collaboration with other theatrical practitioners.
In this sense Henrik Ibsen and Erwin Piscator played a major role in Brecht 's life.
Henrik Ibsen, a Norwegian playwright, theatre director and poet, was using the treatment of social issues in his plays and developed the idea, that theatre should challenge social orthodoxies and always present a thesis in favour of a discussion.
Erwin Piscator on the other hand, a German expressionist and theatre director, was the first person to give Brecht the advice to use 'epic theatre ' as an instrument of social change. Piscator himself had already attempted to emphasize the socio-political content of drama, rather than emotionally manipulate the audience and therefore was the foremost exponent of 'epic theatre '.
Even Bertolt thought that today 's catastrophes called for a new dramatic structure, as new themes and problems invaded the social living. Thence his famous quotation: “Petroleum resists the five-act form”. (B.Brecht, 1964: 30)
Brecht was now, more than ever, devoted to a more innovative form of 'epic theatre ', that contrasted the theories of theatre he disliked and had being helped, partially, build up by other professionals as mentioned before.

“Today when human character must be understood as the 'totality of all social conditions ' the epic form is the only one that can comprehend all the processes, which could serve the drama as materials for a fully representative picture of the world.”(B. Brecht comment,1931: Interview on 'The Threepenny Opera ')
Brecht came to the point where he wanted to use theatre as an implement, to show how suffering could be avoided and how the society we live in, could be different if people 's attitudes changed. Generally speaking, as his Marxism belief made him think that all human evil comes from the social society, he wanted to know if when the audience connects with the character portrayed on stage, their critical thinking skills would still be available.
The epic theatre 's aim, in that concept, was then to be an agent of social and political change, treating the one and only theme: The man and his relation to society. By attending such a play, the spectator would have to consider being in a forum where social issues would be examined and discussed. Thus the number one rule in 'epic theatre ' was to not make the audience feel but think; to keep their critical thinking skills up.
In contrast to the 'Dramatic Theatre ', now the whole play would not be any more out of the hero 's perspective, the action would no longer be happening 'now ' and the spectator would never be moved by what he sees. As Brecht rightly says: “The dramatic theatre’s spectator says: Yes, I have felt like that too...; it all seems the most obvious thing in the world ..., I laugh when they laugh.” “The epic theatre’s spectator says: I’d never have thought of it...; nothing obvious in it – … I weep when they laugh.” (Oregon State University, Bertolt Brecht and the THE EPIC THEATER (1) http://bit.ly/sWThNY, 1st of November) Together with the consistency of past events, the scenes were now what Brecht called 'episodic '; no longer dependant of each other, making the whole plot loosely knit together. In 'Fear and Misery of the Third Reich ' the episodic structure sticks out remarkably. As already implied by the title the main theme of this play is a series of related sketches. At the beginning Brecht started off with five playlets, became eight, then nineteen, etc. The point is that in performance one could present an assortment from the entire play without harming the work 's integrity.
For the actors involved in one of his 'epic ' productions strict rules were set. As Brecht main thought was to make clear to the audience that they are watching a play [ 'The Caucasian Chalk Circle ' -The Expert: “How long will the story take, Arkadi?” -The Singer: “It is actually two stories. A few hours.” (B.Brecht,1 944: 8)], neither them nor the performer were allowed to identify with the character. And so at points in the play the actors would detach from the character visualised, to allow the audience to contemplate the actors point of criticism. Likewise there would be implied comments on the characters actions who had to be explained, equally justified as well as to anticipate where they will lead to.
In addition to underline his theory, Brecht would clarify what he did not want to happen on stage. Primarily only Stanislavsky 's ideas were not welcome, as for example the actors merge with the character, the oblivion of the audience or even the wish to make the audience and the performer share the same emotions. These were elements that would restrict the ability of the audience to think about what they see or to allow the actor to show the social purpose of his performance and to not forget that he is not the subject of the play.
Briefly to get a sense of satisfaction, Brecht 's actors would have to act “... in quotation marks”. (Vtheatre.net , Bertolt Brecht, http://bit.ly/thaJNQ, 1st of November) The role player would not impersonate but narrate the actions he 's doing, as if quoting facial gestures. This is what Bertolt Brecht would use when applying his 'Gestics ', regarding everything a performer does in order to show the significance of a scene by working on expressing social attitudes in clear ways. He goes on and creates the 'gestic language ' where rhythm, pause, parallelism and counterpointing is embodied in dialogue. Fundamentally that technique was used for submitting emotions, because as in 'epic theatre ', if the actor decided that he was going to be excited in the next scene he would have to give an explanation to why he suddenly changes his characteristics. Needless to say, that for Brecht, songs where the perfect match for this idea, as the actor 's aim is to produce a basic attitude. In 'Mother Courage and Her Children ' every scene is introduced by a caption telling the audience the next important event, in such a way as to suggest the proper attitude for the audience to adopt to it - for instance:“She manages to save her daughter, likewise her covered cart, but her honest son is killed.”(B.Brecht, 1939: Scene 3)The audience is told by the playwright 's view how we should interpret the scene.
Withal a major part of the 'epic theatre ' was only enabled by the use of certain elements on stage. These components were broadly used to supply background material: In 'Galileo ' projections, in 'Mother Courage and Her Children ' captions of the Thirty Years War and what is going to happen next on stage, or like in 'Drums in the Night ' the display of titles, comments or placards with instructions like: “Don 't stare so romantically”. (B.Brecht, 1922)

The key to 'epic theatre ' was nevertheless the debut of the Verfremdungseffekt; Alienation effect. “A child whose mother remarries, seeing her as a wife not just mother”. It 's basic aim was to discourage the identification with the character and to create a space between the audience and the actor, resulting in contrast. To enable this concept the action had to continuously made strange, remote, etc. This is when the actors would, for example, act in the third person, their character would not only represent one person but a whole social group and they would never encourage the audience to believe that they are the character. In 'Galileo ' after a profound speech by protagonist the following observation is given: “Now I must eat”. (B.Brecht, 1943)
Reinforced by exercises, Bertolt required his performers to excel in the lesson where a fictional car accident was rehearsed to master the 'Alienation effect '. This involved being the eye-witness of a accident and reporting to the audience what just had happened. The actor is restricted in his demonstration and will only quote what 's necessary to this explanation, to leave space for the audiences suggestions, allowing them to stay emotionally detached. On the other hand he will sill be free to comment on what he shows and make a critical judgment on the situation.

In conclusion “Bertolt Brecht 's success was in freeing theatre from the limitations of naturalism drama”.(Universal Teacher, Bertolt Brecht: Theatre, http://bit.ly/uc0Ujl, 4th of November) The creation of his theory influenced by people like Erwin Piscator and Henrik Ibsen and mainly through conceptualizations of theatre he had a tendency to dislike, leaded to the beginning of a new version of 'epic theatre '. Aiming to show viewers how to avoid mayor social and political difficulties reigning at his time by making them have a critical point of view on the play they are looking at. This mechanism was activated through 'Gestic ', the 'Alienation effect ', the décor, the set, the opposition with dramatic theatre and Aristotle 's and Stanislavsky 's ideas.
The theory stands but unfortunately this theory is only partly accomplished in his work. Brecht would say that this is the result of the theatres (and societies) not being ready yet for the final, perfected version of epic theatre.

Word Count: 1850

Bibliography:

Aristotle, 2008, Poetics, New York: Cosimo Inc.
Brecht B., 1976, Bertolt Brecht collected plays, London, Methuen Ltd
Brecht B., 1970, The Collected Plays’ Volume one, London, Methuen Ltd
Counsell C., 1996, Signs of Performance, Routledge
Henderson J. A., 1971, The first avant garde. Edinburg: G G Harrap Ltd.
Leach R.,2004, Makers of Modern Theatre: an Introduction, Oxon: Routledge
Willet J., 1964, Brecht on Theatre, London: Methuen Ltd
Williams R., 2007, Politics of Modernism, London: Verso Ltd.

Bibliography: Aristotle, 2008, Poetics, New York: Cosimo Inc. Brecht B., 1976, Bertolt Brecht collected plays, London, Methuen Ltd Brecht B., 1970, The Collected Plays’ Volume one, London, Methuen Ltd Counsell C., 1996, Signs of Performance, Routledge Henderson J. A., 1971, The first avant garde. Edinburg: G G Harrap Ltd. Leach R.,2004, Makers of Modern Theatre: an Introduction, Oxon: Routledge Willet J., 1964, Brecht on Theatre, London: Methuen Ltd Williams R., 2007, Politics of Modernism, London: Verso Ltd.