BERTOLT BRECHTTheory into Practice

are required to demonstrate your appreciation and theoretical understanding of Brecht to modern theatre practice as shown in specific aspects of a production either seen or participated in (Mother Courage/ Caucasian Chalk Circle). You should show understanding of the following:

the subject matter the political purpose or message or dramatic intention the actor/audience relationship staging form adopted directorial interpretation/production style design elements role of actors and performance style technical elements audience response

Brecht: 25 Essential Points

Brecht Believed:

the stage should approximate a lecture hall Aristotelian/dramatic theatre is obscene because it induces trance and confirms

fatalistic attitudes Spectators must be made aware that they are sitting in a theatre, learning lessons

from the past The theatre should destroy all illusions of reality as they arise The ‘Epic’ dramatist must tell a story which illustrates social truth By adopting Marxist principles, theatre could be used to ‘change the world’

Brecht’s Epic Theatre – The theory:

Epic theatre is intended to educate the audience about social inequalities In Epic theatre, characters are defined by their social function, not by their

personalities Brecht coined the term ‘verfremdung or ‘making strange’ to describe the effects he

wanted to create for his audience Brecht’s early plays were called Lehrstucke; later he abandoned didacticism for

dialectical theatre Brecht introduces the idea of creating Spass in his drama, ‘social criticism through

fun’.

Brecht’s Epic Theatre – The practice:

Epic theatre is loosely knit and episodic in structure

1

Epic drama uses montage: all aspects of the production – décor, music, choreography – are autonomous and work independently

The stage designer is not expected to create a realistic setting for the action but a credible environment built around the actors work

All props used should be authentic To destroy the illusion all the workings of the theatre, such as lighting rigs and event

he musicians should always be visible onstage Epic drama uses gestic means to deliver its message The social relationships within the play are shown gestically both by individual actors

and through their stage groupings

The Brechtian Actor

The Brechtian actor is acting in ’quotation marks’ narrating the actions of a certain person at a definite time in the past

Actors perform in a spirit of criticism The actor externalises social attitudes through gestic acting The Brechtian actor shows in each action his alternative choices – ‘fixing the not…

but’ The Brechtian actor steps in and out of role in full view of the audience Brecht introduced rehearsal exercises, such as speaking in third person and

speaking stage directions aloud to help his actors create distance between themselves and the role.

Brecht invented the ‘The Street scene’ model for actors.

PEOPLE AND IDEAS THAT INFLUENCED BRECHT:

2

EXPRESSIONISM:

This was a movement in art and literature which originated in Germany before WW1 and ended around 1924. It influenced Modernism in England and America; and Surrealism which developed in the period between the wars.

Expressionists tried to break through accepted notions of reality to try and find a deeper meaning underneath. Its style is not smooth and linear. It is erratic and explosive rather than descriptive. Reality is distorted and heightened and is sometimes grotesque.Expressionist playwrights of the time included Georg Kaiser and Ernst Toller. They wrote in the years immediately after WW1 and attacked Capitalism in industrialised societies. The characters were only referred to as titles, so in Gas, by Kaisre, The cast list includes: The Engineer, the girl, the Gentleman in white, the billionaire’s son.

In his essay, On Experimental Theatre, (1939) Brecht said of Expressionism:

It represents arts revolt against life; here the world existed purely as a vision, strangely distorted, a monster conjured up by disturbed souls. Expressionism greatly enriched the theatre’s means of expression and brought aesthetic gains that still have to be fully exploited, but it proved quite incapable of shedding light on the world as an object of human activity. The theatres educative ability collapsed.

Brecht on Theatre – Willet pg 132

BRECHT AND MARXISM

In the late 1920’s, while working on Joe Fleishhacker, Brecht began to study Marxism. He started to read Das Kapital and took lessons from Karl Korsch at the Karl Marx school in Berlin. Brecht’s relationship with Communism is a complex one.

He took from Marxism an essential understanding of society and a sense of historicism and materialism. This much is clear in his plays and theoretical writing. And while there are many theoretical and practical differences among the various forms of Marxism, most forms of Marxism share:

an attention to the material conditions of people's lives, and social relations among people

a belief that people's consciousness of the conditions of their lives reflects these material conditions and relations

an understanding of class in terms of differing economic relations of production, and as a particular position within such relations

an understanding of material conditions and social relations as historically malleable a view of history according to which class struggle, the evolving conflict between

classes with opposing interests, structures each historical period and drives historical change

a sympathy for the working class or proletariat and a belief that the ultimate interests of workers best matches those of humanity in

general.

His relationship to the Communist Party is less clear. Brecht’s teacher, Karl Korsch, was a leading Marx scholar and was also one of the most active militants in the Communist movement. In 1926, he was one of the first victims of Stalinism in the German Communist Party and was expelled from the movement to which he had always been committed. He then moved to the forefront of the Left Opposition and developed a sharp critique of Stalinism in the USSR. This

3

was the man Brecht called ‘my teacher of Marxism’. Brecht, although a supporter of Communists, never became a Party member.

When he eventually moved to East Berlin after persecution in America, he retained Swiss passports for himself and his family – an understandable precaution perhaps by somebody who had seen totalitarianism before and had spent much of his adult life as a refugee.

The political purpose or message or dramatic intention:

When writing about Brecht you need to be aware of the political climate at the time in Germany, as well as Brecht’s own political beliefs. Brecht supported Marxism which was diametrically opposed to the Nazi, fascist regime. Brecht wanted his work to appeal to the masses, the worker (or the general public in a Marxist sense). He sought to educate and entertain, wanting individuals to form their own opinions regarding the drama they were watching.

CHINESE THEATRE

Brecht saw the Chinese actor Mei Lan Fang in Moscow, 1935. He watched him perform without make-up, costume or lighting and saw an actor who seemed to stand aside from his part ‘and make it quite clear that he knows he’s being observed’. There was a lack of illusion or empathy in the performance. By standing outside of the character the actor forced the audience to look more closely at the mechanism of acting. In the absence of ‘the fourth wall’ and the techniques used in Chinese theatre, Brecht saw some of his own ideas of ‘epic theatre’. Brecht wanted simple and uncluttered action. He was reacting against the melodramatic bourgeois German theatre that he witnessed around him.

JAPANESE NOH THEATRE

Noh plays are often morality tales and require the audience to make a judgement on what they see. Brecht’s play He who said yes/ He who said no, is based on the Noh play Taniko Again, in the techniques of Japanese theatre performance, Brecht saw the use of ‘alienation’ (verfremdungseffekt).

SPORT, BOXING AND TRAVELLING FAIRS

Early on in his analysis of theatre, Brecht drew a comparison between the theatre audience and the audience at a football or boxing match. Firstly, he wanted his theatre to have a mass appeal, to be able to draw the live crowds that a sporting event would. Secondly, he noted that these sporting audiences were always wide awake, in bright light and engaged in a dialogue with what hey were watching. Whilst following a complex match or game, they could still chat to friends and be relaxed and critical. Brecht wanted to encourage this attitude in theatre audiences.

Brecht also had an interest in the sports hero. He wanted to understand the boxers mind and he had a relationship with the great German boxer of the day, Paul Samson-Korner, with whom he collaborated on a play called The Human Fighting Machine, which was never completed.

Brecht was heavily influenced by the fan-fairs of his youth, street entertainment and political cabarets. His fascination with travelling fairs –

A singer/narrator Stories with a moral purpose, underscored by pictorial illustrations. Accompanying music on a barrel organ A performance in daylight The audience free to smoke and drink and come and go as they please.

4

There were no illusions in the performance and Brecht wanted to demystify the mechanics of the performance.

ERWIN PISCATOR (1893-1966)

Piscator was a German theatre director whose left-wing policies and house-style were of great interest to Brecht. It was with Piscator at his theatre that Brecht first worked on Hasek’s novel The Good soldier Schweik. Piscator worked in Berlin in the 1920’s. His plays involved large casts, often complex stage machinery and the use of film and back projections. His pieces were motivated by politics. In April 1930, he wrote: ‘Never was it more essential than now to take sides; the side of the proletariat. More than ever the theatre must nail its flag fanatically to the mast of politics; the politics of the proletariat. The Theatre of Erwin Piscator – Willet pg 121

John Willet observes, ‘Meyerhold was surely right when he complained in 1928 that Piscator has built a new theatre but makes old actors perform in it’. The concept of epic ‘gestic’ acting was independently elaborated by Brecht in ‘The Theatre of Erwin Piscator’ Willet pg120.

DRAMATURG; Piscator was making political theatre before the Ausberger (Brecht)…Though Piscator never wrote a play himself and hardly even wrote a scene, the Ausberger claimed that apart from himself, he was the only competent dramatist. The actual theory of non-Aristotelian theatre and the development of the A-effect should be credited to the Ausberger, but much of it was also supplied by Piscator, and in a wholly original and independent way. Above all, the theatres conversion to politics was Piscator’s achievement, without which, the Ausberger’s theatre would hardly be conceivable.

Trans. Willet pg 68-69

CASPAR NEHER (1897-1962)

Caspar Neher was Brecht’s stage designer. He was also born in Augsberg. Brecht and Neher met at school in their early teens. With a common interest in theatre, they became friends. Like Piscator, Neher fought in WW1 but unlike Piscator and Brecht, he was not politicised either by his experiences nor his contact with radical friends such as Brecht. Indeed, Neher was able to continue working in Germany throughout the Nazi period, while Brecht, Piscator and many other were forced into exile due to threats to their loves.

Neher was first and foremost an artist. He did line drawings and was interested in stage design from his teens onwards. Brecht and Neher collaborated in many Brecht productions in their early and later lives, despite a separation of over ten years while Brecht was in exile. Brecht showed no resentment at Neher’s apoliticism. Fritz Korner once said of Neher, ‘he never had any (convictions). Not even in the Nazi period.’Nevertheless, Brecht and Neher’s friendship lasted and survived the separation as is attested to be the following poem, written by Brecht in about 1948:

The Friends

The war separatedMe, the writer of plays, from my friend the stage designer.The cities where we worked are no longer there.When I walk through the cities that still areAt times I say: that blue piece of washingMy friend would have placed it better. The Playwright’s speech about the Theatre of the Stage Designer Caspar Neher (from Willet pg 84-86)

5

With what care he selects a chair, and with what thought he places it! And it all helps the playing. One chair will have short legs, and the height of the accompanying table will also be calculated, so that whoever eats at it has to take up quite a specific attitude, and the conversation of these people as they bend more than usual when eating takes on a particular character, which makes the episode clearer. And how many effects are made possible by his doors of the most diverse heights…There is no building of his, no yard, or workshop or garden that does not bear the fingerprints of the people who built it or lived there. He makes visible the manual skills and knowledge of the builders and the ways of the living inhabitants. In his designs our friend always starts with ‘the people themselves’ and ‘what is happening to or through them;’. He provides no ‘décor’ frames and backgrounds but constructs the space for ‘people’, to experience something in.

He (Neher) often makes use of a device which has since become an international commonplace and is generally divorced from its sense. That is the division of the stage, an arrangement by which a room, a yard or place of work is built up to half height downstage while another environment is projected or painted behind, changing with every scene or remaining throughout the play. This second milieu can be made up of documentary material or picture or tapestry. Such an arrangement naturally gives depth to the story while acting as a continual remainder to the audience that the scene designer has built a set: what he sees is presented differently from the world outside the theatre.

This method for all its flexibility, is of course, only one of the many he uses; his sets are as different from one another as the plays themselves. The basic impression is of very lightly constructed, easily transformed and beautiful pieces of scaffolding, which further the acting and help to tell the evening’s story fluently. Add the verve with which he works, the contempt he show for anything dainty and innocuous, and the gaiety of his construction, and you have perhaps some indication of the way of working of the greatest stage designer of our day.

KURT WEILL – MUSIC

Brecht saw music as essential to his theatre. They are a feature of v-effeckt and spass. A musical score could include songs which commented on the action and gave the singer/actor the opportunity to address the audience directly. (They could also be sung like a chorus, which could address the characters with advice and warnings or take on the function of telling the audience the characters unspoken thoughts). He used songs to wake up the audience. The music and the songs were treated as separate elements. Brecht used cheap and expressive music that was popular – cabaret, jazz, folk, ballads and contemporary. Songs could comment on characters feelings as third person narrative, and thus were far from naturalistic. The songs allow for the distancing effect to take place as well as emphasising the message of the story and often undercutting the emotional element of the scene. The style of the music is often recitative and repetitive. The emphasis is on the words and the parable being put across, not on the melodic quality of the music. (eg: Mother Courage). Songs should be directed to the audience. Brecht did not like sentimentality. He liked music that dealt with real life issues. Sentimentality breeds false issues and statements. BUT it should be fun.

INTRODUCTION TO EPIC THEATRE

In his Epic Theatre Brecht sought to illuminate the historically specific features of an environment in order to show how that environment influenced, shaped and often battered and destroyed the characters. Unlike dramatists who focused on the universal elements of human situation and fate, Brecht was interested in the attitudes and behaviour people adopted towards each other in specific historical situations. Thus, in Mahogonny and The Three Penny Opera he was interested

6

in how people related to each other in a capitalist society; in Mother Courage, how trades people related to soldiers and civilians during war in an emerging market society; in The Measure Taken, he depicted revolutionary relationships in the struggle in China.

Brecht called this practice historicization and believed that one could best adopt a critical attitude towards one’s society if the present social arrangements and institutions were viewed as historical, transitory and subject to change. Brecht intended that epic theatre show emotions, ideas and behaviours as products of, or response to specific social situations and not as the unfolding of the human essence.

Brecht, in turning to Marxism to explain human behaviour rejected humanist essentialism. This meant that he rejected the premise that there is such a thing as human nature, which is the same in all places and at all times. That men and women may be essentially different is sometimes included in this idea, and it may also be extended to say that different races of people are essentially different – sometimes with the added slant that men are essentially superior to women and white men essentially superior to black. Liberal humanism is a term you often come across; a liberal humanist would want to hold onto the idea of an essential human nature but would reject the idea of superiority of one sex or race over another. A liberal humanist statement might be: We are the same under the skin.

Brecht rejected naturalism in the theatre. Naturalism can be defined from the quote in Hamlet: ‘To hold as twere a mirror up to nature’. Brecht wanted theatrical pieces not only to show the world as it is, but also how it might be – imagine a mirror in which you not only saw yourself but also showed how you might look. Also, a mirror, is in a way, ‘invisible’ – you cannot see the surface of a mirror, all you can see are the things that it reflects. Brecht wanted his mirror to be visible. He wanted his theatre to ‘show the showing’.

In rejecting essentialism and naturalism, Brecht was rejecting the idea of ‘nature’, or rather ‘human nature’. This essential unchanging nature is the same yesterday, today and forever. A mirror showing Brecht’s idea of ‘nature’ would have to also show the things that created it and which were in the process of changing it, i.e. social, man-made processes.

Brecht’s writing is sometimes divided into different periods. He read and took instruction in Marxism in the 1920’s. The plays most influenced by Marxism are the early didactic pieces, called Lehrstucke. In German, ein Lehrer or eine Lehrerein is a teacher, lehren means to teach. Das stuck is a play or a piece.

Brecht’s early pieces after his study of Marxism, like The Mother are seen as didiactic, pedagogic plays. But Brecht did not want to tell people what to think as the term didactic may imply. He wanted an audience to think for themselves, to judge what they saw. In exile in the late 1930’s he wrote this poem:

On Judging

You artists who, for pleasure or for painDeliver yourselves up for judgement of the audienceThe world which you show

You show what it is; but alsoIn showing what it is you suggest what could be and is notAnd might be helpful. Fro from your portrayalThe audience must learn to deal with what is being portrayed.Let this learning be pleasurable. Learning must be taughtAs an art, and you shouldTeach dealing with things and with people

7

As an art too, and the practice of art is pleasurable.

To be sure you live in a dark time. You see manTossed back and forth like a ball by evil forces.Only an idiot lives without worry, The unsuspecting Are already destined to go under. What were the earthquakesOf grey prehistory compared to the afflictionsWhich we suffer in cities? What were bad harvestsTo the breed that ravages us in the midst of plenty?

Brecht wanted people in the audience to think about the real world outside theatre. This was his way of using theatre for political ends. He used to have a sign which he took with him on his travels and put above his desk which said, THE TRUTH IS CONCRETE.

BRECHT- HIS THEATRE PRACTICE

Brecht’s writings on theatre were developed over a lifetime. His starting point was always his practical work and consequently ideas were constantly in flux and developed. It is a curious fact that very little has been publicised to tell us either how Brecht really worked with his actors, or how his epoch making productions were put together in rehearsal…overwhelmingly, studies of Brecht have been largely theoretical in nature.

The audience was discouraged from identification with the characters by a number of techniques, which have become known as his Alienation device or Verfremdungeffekt. These included the use of parables, interludes, songs, placards and captions, masks, projections and his work on Gestus. All of these were crucial to Brecht’s theatre and allowed the audience to distance themselves not only from the familiar subjects and situations, but from their own preconceived notions and personal experiences. Brecht’s Theatre, where the narrator had a critical attitude to the story and the audience was encouraged to make decisions was called Epic Theatre. To clarify the differences between Epic and Dramatic theatre Brecht presented the table on the following page:

DRAMATIC THEATRE EPIC THEATREBrings an event to life Relates the eventInvolves the audienceand wears down itscapacity for action

Makes the audience an observer but arouses its capacity for action

Helps it to feel Compels it to makedecisions

Communicatesexperiences

Communicates insights

The audience isprojected into an event

The audience isconfronted with anevent

Suggestion is used Arguments are usedThe character is aknown quantity

The character issubject to investigation

Man is unchangeable Man can change andmake changes

Eyes on the finish Eyes on the courseEvents move in a Events move in

8

straight line irregular curvesOne event followsanother

Events jump

The world as it is The world as it isbecoming

‘Theatre for Learning’ 1957

BRECHT’S IDEAS AND THEORIES:

VERFREMSDUNGSEFFEKT

This loosely translates from German as ‘distancing effect’ and is a major feature of Epic Theatre. It is seen through the actors and their relationship with the audience.

The Verfremsdungeffekt and the Actors: Actors do not submerge themselves in their character – the actors then receive

‘renewed attentiveness’ from the audience (i.e. theya re forced to look closely at the mechanics of acting)

Actors demonstrate their roles, rather than fully embodying their character – this then allows them to address the audience and narrate.

Brecht dislocated the through line of action, one of Stanislavski’s theories, because this made the outcome seem inevitable, and impossible to change.

The Verfremsdungeffekt and the Actors: Actor’s appealed to the audience’s reason, rather than their emotions – this

removed sympathy and personal identification with the action onstage – therefore, the audience regard the actors as actors, not as characters, and are thus able to consider the themes and arguments of the play.

The audience are to judge the validity of a character’s chosen course of action. The actor’s action affects an audience’s response.

Brecht wanted to create a critical view in the audience – there was no lessening of audience involvement, it just became a more objective role.

The audience must not have an emotional catharsis - ie take on the burdens and become trapped in the emotions of the play, so they cannot form a judgement.

Brecht wants us to look at the characters’ actions, not what they say – words can lie (subtext) but the act doesn’t lie.

Action of characters exposed: we are able to criticise them:o Right and Wrong actions are exhibited onstageo We only realise we can change the world by seeing the wrong actions

alongside the right. The audience were distanced so:

o They didn’t take things for grantedo So they stayed mentally alert, so they could think and argue about what

they saw onstage – only then would they be motivatedo It forces the audience to look at things that are familiar and ordinary in a

striking, peculiar or unexpected way, so they see the world afresh.

GESTE/ GESTUS

Brecht thought that for an actor to communicate with an audience he would need to connect with them through his body language as well as verbally. This is what Brecht called GEST.

9

Gestus is the gist or essence of a character or scene and is mainly determined by the socialposition and history of the characters. It often involves a contradiction. The most famous being the silent scream by Helene Weigel in Mother Courage and Her Children. The contradiction lies in the idea of a scream being silent and succinctly shows her feelings of repression by not being able to vocalise her pain.

Geste relates in particular to the skills used by the actorso There is no subtext – ‘All feelings must be externalised’. Geste excludes the

psychological aspects of a characters development.o It has 2 essential components – 1. Contradiction – between actions and words.2. It stands for a social relationship.o Geste allows alternative consciousness and points of view, so an audience are made

to think, and come to conclusions based on this.o Gestus should show status.o Exaggeration: The most important thing we ever find out about a Brechtian

character is their social standing in the hierarchy. The props they use and their gestus can show this.

o Create a character from the outside/in, rather than Stanislavski’s inside/out. The main idea the actors must put across is the status of the characters.

o Ensemble acting is important – o actors should stop gravitating to the centre of the stageo multi-roling is an important element of ensemble acting and v-effeckt. o they shouldn’t detach themselves or be aloneo they shouldn’t get too close, but should always look at who they are speaking

to, so the audience focus on that actoro The play is most important – not actors or ‘stars’

SPASS:

o Is the German word for ‘Fun’.o It is another aspect of dialecticism in his worko ‘Satire’ – the use of comedy in order to propel change. o The grotesque stereotypes – e.g. the Governor’s wife is haughty, useless, selfish

and self-obsessed. o The audience is being invited to laugh at these characters and ultimately condemn

what they stand for. o It is made palatable to the audience though rapport and humour.o The use of music and song is also a part of spasso ‘A theatre without laughter is a theatre to be laughed at’ Brechto Laughter with a social criticism.

DIDACTIC VS DIALECTIC:

o Didactic means intended to instruct. Through his work he wanted the spectator to learn about the world in which they lived. He did not want audiences to leaves their brains on coat racks.

o Dialectical refers to the testing of truth by discussion – in simple terms – a debate. Brecht intended to give all sides of an argument and allow the spectators to make the critical judgement as a result.

HISTORICISATION:

10

o This term in drama was coined to refer to the Brechtian practice of using a known event from history to act as a commentary on modern society.

o By setting the play outside the audience’s own time period, makes it easier for the spectators to focus on the message of the play, as they view a strange society with which they are not familiar.

BRECHT: PRACTICAL STAGING

STAGE DESIGN:

o The set for a play should be anti-illusionist: constantly reminding the audience they are in a theatre, so they do not believe they are watching reality, and do not get drawn into the empathy with the setting, or simply marvel at its grandeur.

o The set is built to the actors needs. Built to last 2 hours. Built to support a group of actors not built for characters

o the set evolves as a creative partnership (ensemble)

o The designer adopts a political attitude towards the events on stage – they show the issues on stage through the set.

o The stage is bare and open, except for a few props. The props are real, and the actors must be comfortable with them.

o The set is changed in view of the audience – this breaks the illusion, and reminds the audience they are in a theatre.

o Set designer = set builder

o Visible machinery – ropes, flies, rigs and orchestra

o There is no curtain, or if there is it is just strung across the stage (Brecht’s half curtain) again this destroys the illusion.

o Selective realism – the minimum is needed to suggest time and place. Only those bits of buildings needed to suggest time and place were constructed.

o Furniture should look used – this makes them authentic, so then we do not focus on them, do not even think about them.

o The backstage area should be exposed for audience scrutiny, so they can see the mechanics of acting, and so not get drawn into an illusion.

o Representational sets – this shows the audience what it is straight away, so they are not drawn in wondering what the set is.

o Projections/ slides/placards are used, stating what will happen. By explaining what will happen, there is a focus on events and character, and the audience do not have to follow a story, which will cause them to be drawn into the events onstage.

11

STAGING FORM:

o Boxing ring/ in the roundo Touring set therefore should be minimalo Breaking of the 4th wallo Rejection of scenic realismo Actor/audience relationshipo Configuration of space/ demarcation of acting area.

SCENERY & PROPS:

o Period usageo Creating the environment around the actorso Props are functional and authentico Base materials of the people (leather briefcase)

LIGHTING:

o Visible sources of lighting used o Bright white lighto Vibrant lightingo Lighting can be changed onstage by the actors to show the mechanics of the

production.o

COSTUME DESIGN:

o Costumes should be individually distinguishable – characters must be distinguishable, for they all have different meaning, and must not be bound up together.

o Conversely, if uniform is used. Once you are in uniform, you are uniform, you are unrecognisable as an individual – you can be manipulated as a group.

o Costumes should be in dull colours: fabrics should be undyed. Distressed costumes and neutral colour palette for the working class. This is simply so the audience does not get drawn in by the beauty of the costumes.

o Costumes should show signs of wear - texture and quality to signal their function - not only does this distance the audience but it represents character.

o Use of half-mask (ruling class) is important – this distances us, as we focus on an actor’s body, their physical actions, so we realise they are actors.

12

The most famous Gestus of all- Mother Courage’s The Silent Scream by Helene Wiegel

ASSIGNMENTS AND ESSAY WRITING

You will need to familiarise yourself with Mother Courage and her Children.

13

Assignment 1:

With close reference to one or more live productions that you have seen, or participated in, explain how, and with what success, Brecht’s ideas on verfremdungseffekt (alienation) were used in order to affect the audience response.

(50 marks) Explain how the technique was used and what its consequence was –how successful were they in your view.

INTRODUCTION:

Arguably one of the most important aspects of Brecht’s epic theatre is his notion of verfremdungseffekt. This has become popularly known as alienation technique. However, this implies a rather cold, distant reading of the term. It can be more accurately translated as ‘strange making’ technique. For this is more akin to what Brecht intended. He wanted an active type of theatre that could be used for as a tool for changing our flawed society. To achieve this goal, he wanted to educate audiences and actors that there is a need for change. So people events, recognisable phenomena, institutions and society are held up for display in such a way that an audience recognises the reality of what they are seeing and sees it in a different light. We are products, said Brecht of the scientific age. Therefore we should look at life critically with the cool rational eye of the scientist. This is what Brecht’s verfremdungseffeckt seeks to achieve.

This essay will explain how The National Theatre’s recent production of Brecht’s Mother Courage utilised Brecht’s ideas on verfremdungseffekt (v-effekt) and to what extent it was successful.

Assignment 2:

With close reference to one or more live production that you have seen, or participated in, assess the success of two to three actors in adopting a Brechtian approach to their roles.

(50 marks)

Assignment 3:

With close reference to one or more live production that you have seen, or participated in, explain how one or more of the following Brechtian features contributed to its success in conveying a social message:

o Music and/or songo Narrator/s

14

o Gestic acting(50 marks)

Assignment 4:

Explain how Brecht’s ideas about ‘ensemble acting’ were demonstrated in one or more live productions that you have seen, or participated in, and assess the contribution of the performers to the success of the production.

(50 marks)

The socialist ethic of the Berliner Ensemble The ensemble of ‘workers’. The significance of each member of the

ensemble as his/her own person. Acting in ‘quotation marks’ and a spirit of criticism of one’s own and of fellow

actor’s work Gestic acting Rehearsal exercises for actors in relation to epic theatre/ alienation, the street

scene The split character’s/ multi-roling – actors within the ensemble often play both

‘good’ and ‘bad’ characters both rich and poor. Theatre for a scientific age Casting against type to enrich the ensemble, unheroic casting. ‘Taking the tone’ within the ensemble Accepting suggestions from the ensemble Training new actors and exposing them to an audience Ensemble actors embodying competing social attitudes Language and song The relationship of the ensemble with the audience

Essay questions.

BRECHT

o In his plays and in his practice, Brecht attempted to combine political instruction with entertainment. With reference to at least one ‘Brechtian’ production that you have seen, or participated in, assess the effectiveness of a range of Brechtian techniques in conveying a political message to a present-day audience.

o Explain how one practitioner’s ideas about the use of design elements were exemplified in a production which you have seen, or participated in, and assess the contribution made by the design to its dramatic effectiveness.

o Explain how a production that you have seen, or participated in, demonstrated Brecht’s ideas about acting. How successful do you consider the actors to have been in applying his methods?

15

o Explain how one practitioner’s rejection of ‘scenic realism’ was demonstrated in a production that you have seen, or participated in, and assess the contribution of the stage setting to the success of the production.

o Assess the contribution made by music and song to the effectiveness of one or more Brechtian-style productions that you have seen, or participated in.

o Explain how one practitioner’s ideas about ‘ensemble acting’ were demonstrated in one production that you have seen, or participated in, and assess the contribution of the performers to the success of the production.

o Explain how Brecht’s ideas for creating fun(Spass) for his audience, to help them to appreciate his social message, contributed to the success of one or more productions that you have seen or participated in.

o Explain how one practitioner’s ideas for affecting his audience were adopted in one or more productions that you have seen or participated in and assess the effectiveness of the methods used.

o With close reference to one live production that you have seen or participated in, explain how Brechtian techniques were applied in order to discourage the audience from empathising with the characters and assess the success of the methods used.

o With reference to one or more live productions that you have seen or participated in, explain how, and to what effect, one practitioner’s approach to stage setting was applied.

o With close reference to one or more live productions that you have seen or participated in, explain how design elements were used to support a distinctively Brechtian approach to presenting the play and assess the contribution made by design to the success of the production.

o With close reference to one or more live productions that you have seen or participated in, assess the success of the application of one practitioner’s ideas about the role of the performer within the production(s).

o With close reference to specific moments from one or more live productions that you have seen or participated in, explain how a variety of Brechtian techniques were used to convey social/political ideas to an audience.

16

o Explain how practitioner’s ideas for stimulating the interest of his audience were applied in one live production that you have seen or participated in, and assess the effectiveness of his methods in relation to specific moments from the production.

BRECHT.

In Relation to – Mother Courage and Her Children.

Brecht’s purpose.Brecht saw Theatre as a tool to examine society. Brecht wanted a new kind of theatre that reflected the times in which he was living- replacing an old fashioned theatre. He wanted a theatre that asked questions of the actors and the audience that entertained whilst also being a tool for social and political change.He wrote ‘Mother Courage and Her Children’ as a response to Twentieth Century war and Politics.

Verfremdungseffekt.

In order to encourage an audience to stay mentally alert and in a condition to think about and argue with what it sees on stage Brecht developed the idea of Verfremdungseffekt. This is ‘to make strange’. It should make the audience pay attention to something that they might otherwise simply take for granted.‘Certain incidents in the play should be treated as self-contained scenes and raised - by means of the inscription, musical or sound effects and the actors’ way of playing- above the level of the everyday, the obvious, the expected Prevents emotional involvement.The street scene.Brecht drew an analogy between his Theatre and a sporting event at which spectators were encouraged to smoke but also to express their opinions of the skills on display. It also acknowledges that the audience is an educated participant.Kenneth Tynan said that the actor in Brecht’s theatre treated the spectator as an equal ‘in a sort of dialectic, rather than as people to be sweetened or flattered’.

Acting.Stanislavski wanted truth in a performance. Brecht wants us to ask ‘is this picture of society actually true?’Does it truthfully tell us why this character is like he/she is or why s/he does what s/he does?The actor must not identify with the character but be surprised by the character's behavior, contradict him, do not take his/her behavior for granted.When an actor goes on stage as a certain character they should imply what doesn’t take place as well as showing what does. This is called ‘fixing the ‘not…but’ Moments when choices are made and emphasized.

“Did I bargain for too long?” After she has delayed the release of Swiss Cheese by trying to get a better price for her business.

The actor should not let a fourth wall divide them from the audience.‘Let the audience see you are not this character, but you are an actor representing this character and that you do not necessary agree with what your character is doing/saying. However, be specific and avoid caricature. In this last point are the seeds of social Gest (Demonstation).

17

Emotions have to be externalised and for this an actor must use gesture. Gesture as used by the actors adopting the V-effekt must underline the social gest. Social gest reveals the prevailing social relationships between people of a given period. These social gests are underlying every incident.Absolute clarity was very important to Brecht and he was a big fan of Charlie Chaplin.

Mother Courage always carefully counted out the money when doing a deal.

The General- his laugh and cigar and his swagger.

Yvette- her body language and costume.Later when Yvette was married to the Colonel she shows through her body how she has shifted social classes. She wears a fur coat. Direct address to the audience- The chaplain directly addressed the audience and asked them to think about Eilif being a hero during wartime but a criminal for doing the same in peace.

Brecht wanted us to be critical of the people he made fun of - The General, The Chaplain, Exaggeration used to ridicule.

Set Design

Brecht’s most famous set Designer was Casper Neher. Neher would observe rehearsals and concentrated on social groupings. The set should remind the spectator that they are in the theatre and should acquire the same fascinating reality of a sporting arena during a boxing match- to show the machinery.

“If a set represents a town it must look like a town that has been made to last precisely 2 hours” Selective Realism- Using only what is necessary to tell the story and should be authentic.

Tents made from canvas but in scene 2 it was just a canopy and the General and Chaplain and Eilif stood outside of it.

Authentic uniforms and costumes

Guns

Chicken in scene 2

Potatoes in scene 2 – actually cooking of food on stage

Chaplain chopping wood.

Brecht saw the set as another actor and often the set could be constructed in such away as to force an actor into adopting an attitude. It adds to the gestus.

In Scene 2 The General was stood up stage left and had a large grand straight backed chair. Stage right the cook was on a very small milking stool whilst he peeled the potatoes. MC had to crouch down beside him to pluck the chicken.

18

The cart was heavy and difficult to manoeuvre the actors’ were forced to show the struggle to move it and get around.

Songs

Music was an essential part of Brecht’s Theatre. It could interrupt the action, comment on the action and could comment on emotions in the 3rd person. Song of fraternization- song by Yvette.Songs were to be treated as separate elements. Courage’s song about how war is just another form of business. Breaks up the structure Non linear.

Courage’s song scene 7

Spass“Fun” / Satire…Grotesque Stereotypes. A sense of fun.

The audience is being invited to laugh at these characters and ultimately condemn what they stand for.

(In rehearsal, to find a stereotype; explore the character from the outside-in.)

Two Acting Styles co-existing

Grotesque contrasted with Sympathetic down-to-earth characters

(both are making political statements to the audience and one shows up the other)

Comedy as a distancing technique. The scene with Kattrin trying on Yvette’s shoes.

Comic characterizations. The General, The Cook

The chaplain’s proposal to Mother Courage.

The scene changes- had a real sense of energy and ensemble.

Montage.Connects dissimilar images/scenes in such away as to ‘shock’ people into new recognition’s and understandings.

Eilif’s death on stage as MC sings another verse of courage’s song.

Scene titles

Help eliminate suspense. The play’s lengthy scene titles were delivered matter of factly by a member of the ensemble.

19

Brecht Mother Courage and Her Children

The play was finished in 1939. It is set in Europe during the Thirty Year’s War (1618-1648) It tells the story of a woman, Anna Fierling who makes her living by travelling around

the battlefields with her canteen wagon; buying and selling what goods she can lay her hands on. At the beginning of the play she is accompanied by her two sons Eilif and Swiss Cheese, and her dumb daughter Kattrin. The play tells the story of how Mother Courage eventually loses all of her three children to the war. As the Sergeant prophetically says to her at the end of the first scene.

Like the war to nourish you?You have to feed it something too

Brecht was a committed Marxist and he intended his theatre to be dialectical because dialectics lies at the heart of Karl Marx’s philosophical thinking and revolutionary politics. Broadly speaking, dialectics refers to the clash of opposites and the contradiction, which are bound to arise when opposites come into conflict.

Mother Courage herself embodies a clash of opposing ideals – dialectic. She is a walking contradiction. She needs the war in order for her business enterprise to thrive, but at the same time, she fears it for the threat it resents to the safety of her children.

She is caught in the contradiction between being a merchant and being a mother.

So essentially the play is about the contradictory claims of business and motherhood; and about the inevitable loss that the mother suffers as she tries to negotiate these contradictory demands.

In the model book for Mother Courage, Brecht describes Mother Courage’s situation thus:

She longs for the war but at the same time fears it. She wants to join in but as a peaceable business, not in a warlike way. She wants to maintain her family during the war and by means of it. She wants to serve the army and also to keep out of its clutches.

In each of these sentences Brecht expresses the contradictions in Mother Courage’s character. The basic contradiction of course is between her role as a mother and her ambition as a merchant. Brecht uses the exceptional circumstances of war as a means of forcing the contradictions in her character to the surface; to dramatically confront and reveal the contradictions through the brutal event of the war.

Brecht’s studies of Marxism and revolutionary politics led him to imagine a new kind of spectator. Traditionally the theatre audiences were content to accept the world depicted on the stage as a true picture of the world as it really is; something, which simply has to be accepted as natural. Brecht wanted a theatre that would show that in any set circumstances a number of different options exist for the characters. And the job of the spectator was to judge the validity of the characters’ selected course of action.

Brecht wanted to create dissent. In political terms, submission produces acquiescence, deference and conformity to the status quo; dissent produces defiance, protest and a desire for change.

The overriding principle in Brecht’s theatre is a commitment to fundamental social change; and consequently, he set out to develop theatre, which presents the world

20

and human nature as knowable and alterable. It was his development of verfrumdungseffekt and the epic form, which helped him proved the tools for achieving this end.

Brecht wore his politics on his sleeve; he directly addressed his audiences and challenged them to look at what happens in the work of human affairs not as being natural, like the weather or the changing seasons but as being man made socially unjust and therefore changeable. Many of his ideas both about politics and a new anti realist theatre are contained within this prologue.

THE OPENING SCENE

“Spring 1624……….etc” are projected onto a cyclorama. The words are detailed and explicit. This is not ‘any old where’ or ‘once upon a

time’ but a specific time and place and a specific year. Not that this particular place has to be remembered: yet the stating of the facts is important. On this stage will be a representation of something real and therefore specific and therefore open to investigation. A general statement like ‘The Thirty Years War’ would be too vague, leaving too much and too little to the imagination.

The opening dialogue between the sergeant and the recruiting officer takes place on a more or less empty stage: ‘a highway’ What is achieved by this dialogue?

THE OPENING DIALOGUE

The war dominates the play. For these 2 characters war is a livelihood. They are war’s creatures and are quick to rationalize their self-interest, turning the feeding of the war into something morally admirable. The 2 men are not themselves witty critical or intelligent: but their dialogue generates a critical wit. What they both say is outrageous and true. War brings organization. In a way, the dialogue is realistic (2 such people may talk like that) but is aim isn’t simply to establish a realistically convincing situation but to make the audience look critically at it.

Brecht’s objective is to present a scene in a way that encourages the audience to see al round it: the objectivity he aims at is achieve in that way.

21