Epic Theater Of War
Epic theater is based on the idea that viewers of a play should not feel an emotional connection to the play but should reflect on what the events occurring on on the stage. Theater of War, an essay film which revolves around the play production of Mother Courage and Her Children. There are a few scenes in the play, shown in the essay film that connect to present day and could get us to think about the whole idea of war.
The one scene that is directly comparable to the present day is the scene where Mother Courage, played by Meryl Streep, is talking to the cook and the chaplain about why their king will never be defeated. She feels that the king will not lose in the war because he is in it to make a profit and if he wasn’t it in to make a
profit the small citizens, like Mother Courage, would smell defeat. This idea directly connects with the Iraq War in present day. Mother Courage speaks on the idea that the reason to go to war is profit and the United States did just that when they entered the Iraq War. Even though oil was not our sole objective in the war, it was our central objective. Before the United States interference in Iraq, oil in Iraq was nationalized and closed to Western companies. After many years of war, oil in Iraq is privatized and dominated by foreign firms.
Epic theater can teach us to step back and think about why we are really going to war. Someone who is caught up in all the emotions of war like patriotism will fail to realize the underlying and much larger reasons for going to war. This is exactly what Brecht was attempting to convey: people get so sucked into the aura of plays that they forget to try to understand the deeper meaning of the play. It can help prevent corruption if future wars because it allows us to see the underlying reasons for going to war. Citizens of the United States did not realize that the main reason for the war was oil so they went along with it. They failed to realize that in the process, the rich, being oil companies, got richer, while the citizens who had to shell out their tax dollars got nothing out of it. This is the corruption in the reason for going to war in Iraq. If we as responsible citizens had stepped back and looked at the war critically, we could have avoided the loss of thousands of brave soldiers and billions in tax dollars in the name of oil.
The one scene that is directly comparable to the present day is the scene where Mother Courage, played by Meryl Streep, is talking to the cook and the chaplain about why their king will never be defeated. She feels that the king will not lose in the war because he is in it to make a profit and if he wasn’t it in to make a
profit the small citizens, like Mother Courage, would smell defeat. This idea directly connects with the Iraq War in present day. Mother Courage speaks on the idea that the reason to go to war is profit and the United States did just that when they entered the Iraq War. Even though oil was not our sole objective in the war, it was our central objective. Before the United States interference in Iraq, oil in Iraq was nationalized and closed to Western companies. After many years of war, oil in Iraq is privatized and dominated by foreign firms.
Epic theater can teach us to step back and think about why we are really going to war. Someone who is caught up in all the emotions of war like patriotism will fail to realize the underlying and much larger reasons for going to war. This is exactly what Brecht was attempting to convey: people get so sucked into the aura of plays that they forget to try to understand the deeper meaning of the play. It can help prevent corruption if future wars because it allows us to see the underlying reasons for going to war. Citizens of the United States did not realize that the main reason for the war was oil so they went along with it. They failed to realize that in the process, the rich, being oil companies, got richer, while the citizens who had to shell out their tax dollars got nothing out of it. This is the corruption in the reason for going to war in Iraq. If we as responsible citizens had stepped back and looked at the war critically, we could have avoided the loss of thousands of brave soldiers and billions in tax dollars in the name of oil.