Brecht Theories

Bertolt Brecht, a German socialist, dramatist, stage director and poet believed that theatre should appeal to the spectators dialectics rather than there emotions. Brecht was heavily influenced by a wide variety of sources including Chinese, Japanese, and Indian theatre, the Elizabethans, Greek tragedy, fair-ground entertainments and much more. On the contrary, Brechts own theatrical theories and staging conventions were a direct revolt against the theatre practices of his day. With reference to his ‘epic' dramas; The Caucasian Chalk Circle and Mother Courage and her Children, along with comparison to Dramatic theatre, this response will debate the issues surrounding Brechts revolution of theatre.

Born Eugen Berthold Friedrich Brecht on the 10th of February 1898 in Ausburg, Bavaria in Germany, Brechts childhood and early youth were years full of violent events filled with drama. It was at this time that the capitalist world developed, together with the events that linked to the outbreak of the First World War with all its destructive consequences. These tragic events left their mark on the young Brecht and powerfully influenced the formation of his character and in turn would also play a major part in the development of Brecht's ideas. In 1933 the Nazi's came to power and Brecht was forced to leave Germany. It was during this period, in exile, that Brecht wrote his greatest plays including Mother Courage and her Children and The Caucasian Chalk Circle.
Brecht called his modern theatre the Epic Theatre and this was to be the theatre for the modern era. Its main aim was to be analysing the social relations that determine action in bourgeois society. In his plays, Brecht creates an image concerning the many sided and contradictory events in history. However, how he presented them on stage has created much debate across the world of theatre. During Brechts day, dramatic theatre dominated theatres around the world and the idea that the delivery of lines to the audience was blocked with the use of the ‘fourth wall' between the audience and the stage was a major part of theatre practice. The audience was seeing into a piece of reality, a show was not being performed. Brecht rejected this idea and established the ‘alienation effect' which aimed at reminding the spectator that they are watching an enactment of reality instead of reality itself. He believed that theatre should not cause the spectator to be emotionally attached to the action before him or her but instead provoke logical self-reflection and critical view of the actions on stage.
In Brechtian theatre, the imaginary fourth wall was removed and the spectator was a part of the production. The spectators were required to react to suffering and leave the theatre determined to make a difference. Brecht has stated in his essay The Modern Theatre is the Epic theatre that "The dramatic theatre's spectator says: Yes, I have felt like that too- Just like me- It'll never change- The sufferings of this man appall me because they are inescapable- I weep when they weep- I laugh when they laugh however the Epic Theatre's spectator says: I'd never have thought of that- That's not the way- Its got to stop- The sufferings of this man appall me because they are unnecessary- I laugh when they weep- I weep when they laugh" and hence with this said, Brecht compared what the observer was thinking when watching dramatic theatre and epic theatre. The dramatic theatre's observer would get too emotionally caught up in the action and therefore had no time to judge the action however Brecht intended to reform how the spectator reacted by getting them to think critically about what they were seeing; hence ‘a direct revolt against the theatre practices of his day'. He aimed at doing this through the different theatrical means adopted and advanced by him.
For instance, to eliminate the fourth wall, Brecht used theatrical means which are a part of his alienation effect. One theatrical mean is the actor directly addressing the audience. In Brechts epic theatre, the actor, through song, would address the audience, this encouraged the spectator to think more critically about what they were watching on stage. For instance in scene twelve of Mother Courage, Courage is left alone "to pull the cart…by [herself]" because all her children have died as a result of war. With the use of song, Brecht gets the spectator to make a judgment as to why Mother Courage is left alone and why the "common man won't benefit" from the war; therefore breaking the fourth wall. For our Brecht HSC assessment task, one student used this scene. With the use of bare staging, symbolic costumes and props including pale coloured jackets; gestus, for example a long pause at the beginning of the scene and juxtaposition in Mother Courage's character, for instance her daughter had just died however she must go on and continue with her business, the student was properly able to employ Brechts theories and get her message across to the audience. As I started to sympathise with her character, the sympathy was immediately blocked with the use of a song.

With this said, Brecht also wished to present past historical events. In Mother Courage the tragic past of the Thirty years of war in Sweden and in The Caucasian Chalk Cirlce the story of a group of peasants wanting to claim a valley that had been abandoned during WWII. He also wanted the spectator to create an image in their head. To create a particular image, Brecht used another theatrical mean adopted by him called ‘Gestus'. Gestus involved the actor using gesture, body language and facial expressions to show the significance of a scene. In the ‘Brechtian Workshop' we went and viewed at the Sydney Theatre Company, the actors used ‘Gestus' and compared it to exaggerated dramatic acting including movement and exaggerated humour. When the actor was asked to concentrate on a single evident gesture when presented with Swiss Cheeses body, it made it a lot easier for me, as the spectator, to analytically judge what the character, Mother Courage, was going through and in turn the juxtaposition in the characters attitude was also evident with the use of a clear, grand and simple gesture. However when the actor concentrated on movement and humour, I considered the action in a more emotional way rather than drawing a conclusion and reflecting on the events on stage.

Dramatic theatre aimed at presenting the action as happening now and from the hero's point of view, it involved a narrative and provided the audience with sensations. On the contrary, epic theatre broke away from the theatrical theories and staging conventions of its time. It challenged the spectator's thoughts instead of wearing down the spectator's capacity for action. In Dramatic Theatre detailed and realistic sets, where costuming were also produced accurately for the production, were a large part of productions. On the other hand, Brechtian productions were bare and purely representational and symbolic in some cases. With the use of theatrical means such as placards to encourage spectators to think about how the action happened, montage to juxtapose the action on stage and keeping actors on stage whilst the play was still going, Brecht was once again able to achieve his theatrical theory of distancing the audience from the action on stage in order to consider the political and social implications of every part of the action. One example of Brecht using symbolic set is in The Caucasian Chalk Circle written in the aftermath of WWII. During scene five of the Chalk Circle, the setting is mainly a stream which creates a boundary between the two lovers; therefore they cannot get too close and an intimate scene is once again stopped in order for the spectator to concentrate on the dialogue and circumstances rather than relate and feel emotionally attached to the action. The symbolic set of the stream also symbolises the years that have gone by, the different experiences and obstacles along the way. In my HSC assessment task, I used this scene. The symbolic set was very interesting to work with. It created for me, as the actor, a boundary both physiologically and physically. In terms of physiologically creating a boundary, it helped me restrain my emotions however I was not tense; "[the actor's] muscles must remain loose, for a turn of the head will "magically" lead the spectators' eyes and even their heads to turn with it" (from A Short Organum for the Theatre, 1948) Brecht opposed frenetic and dramatic intensity on stage, he believed that the actor must be in control of his/her emotions. He believed that the actor should not impersonate as in Dramatic theatre but demonstrate actions of another person. Also, as Brecht did in rehearsal, we changed characters to gain a better understanding of what the other character was going through. This was very effective as I was able to better understand what action, gesture, I should show the audience opposed to the other character. In realistic theatre, the actor explores the character and tries to blend in with the character however in Brechtian theatre, the actor is not allowed to identify with the character.