Epic Theatre

(on printed notes)p. 3

C. 1.

a. Developed in Germany in 1920s as a means to change society

b. Most influential proponents: Bertolt Brecht and his collaborators

Bertolt Brecht

BERTOLT BRECHT (1898-1956)• Born into a prosperous, bourgeois (middle class) family.

• Majored in natural sciences at Munich University, was a drama critic on the side.

• In the 1920s, began writing plays satirizing bourgeois life. He was a confirmed Socialist, but not Communist.

• Fled Nazi Germany in 1933.

• Produced much of his work on the run in Sweden, Finland, and Santa Monica.

• Appeared before the House Un-American Activities Committee in 1947.

• Returned to East Germany and founded Berliner Ensemble.

Epic Theatre of Chicago www.epicplayers.com

Bertolt Brechtwhen older

c. [Epic Theatre] Attempts to alienate the audience from events in the play so they will maintain an objective and analytical viewpoint

Verfremdungs-effektAKA V-Effect or A-Effect

V-Effect attempts to push audience away from emotional involvement.

Audience should concentrate on WHY, not WHAT.

Plays set in far off place and/or timeLighting instruments in full viewCaptions, maps, other illustrative images

projected on screensSongs break mood and/or contrast in lyric

and melodyActors “comment” on the action by not

being fully immersed in the role at all times

Look at the sets, costumes, and makeup in the following pictures and renderings from productions of Brecht’s plays. How do they differ from plays you have seen?

Drums in the Night(1922)

Written as a response to Brecht’s experience as a medical orderly in WWI

The Caucasian Chalk Circle(1944-45)

Set in a fictitious Oriental land in the Middle Ages

The Good Woman of Setsuan(1938-40)

Set in China at an undetermined time

The Good Woman of Setsuan

Threepenny Opera(1928)

Based on John Gay’s The Beggar’s Opera (1728)

Threepenny Opera at the University of Cincinnati's College-Conservatory of Music

Production of Threepenny Opera at the former Studio 54 in NYC, 2006

The character Polly Peachum with her mother and father in the Studio 54 production

Mack the Knife By Kurt Weill & Bertolt Brecht

Oh the shark has pretty teeth, dear And he shows them pearly white Just a jack-knife has Mac-heath, dear And he keeps it out of sight When the shark bites with his teeth, dear Scarlet billows start to spread Fancy gloves though wears Mac-heath, dear So there's not a trace of red On the sidewalk Sunday morning Lies a body oozing life Someone's sneaking 'round the corner Is the someone Mack the Knife From a tugboat by the river A cement bag's dropping down The cement's just for the weight dear Bet you Mackies's back in town Louis Miller disappeared, dear After drawing out his cash And Mac-heath spends like a sailor Did our boy do something rash? Sukey Tawdry, Jenny Diver *Polly Peachum, Lucy Brown O the line forms on the right, dear Now that Mackie's back in town

* Bobby Darrin sings Lotte Lenya, Weill’s wife and the actress who played Polly Peachum in the original production.

This is the opening song of

Threepenny Opera. It became one of the most popular songs of the

1950s. How many people

do you think really listened to the lyrics?

Mother Courage &

Her Children(1939)

Set during the Thirty Years War, 1618-1648-- although costume design for this show is usually not representative of clothing of the 17th century

Mother Courage

& Her Children

Major themes:• War is bad• Virtue doesn’t pay in

corrupt times

Ted Otto’s original rendering of the set for Mother Courage

Mother Courage and Her Children, set by Ted Otto. Note the device running horizontally at the top of the picture. It is for a half curtain, and no attempt is made to disguise it. It is constructed of highly polished metal so it will shine in full view. A loud rattle of metal passing over metal is heard when this curtain is drawn closed in an attempt to rouse the spectator from an position of passive entertainment. www.english.emory.edu/DRAMA/BrechtDrums

Brecht’s critique of realism: from the web site of the Epic Theatre of Chicago / www.epicplayers.com

• Realism seduces audiences into buying into capitalist values.

• Realism constantly and subliminally urges the audience to accept its picture of reality as a natural, apolitical image of the world as it is.

• Instead, theatre should expose its own means of production to show that reality-on stage and off, is MADE, not GIVEN. 

Mother Courage was not courageous; she was desperate. She did what she had to do to survive in a world where profit set the rules and corruption was king, but she lost all of her children in the process.

Mother Courage

at Yale in 2005

Meryl Streep starred in a production of Mother Courage at the Public Theatre in NYC in 2006.

Jenifer Lewis played the role of Yvette.

The production was directed by George C. Wolfe.

d. [Epic Theatre] Influenced theatre production to be less realistic

Whether or not the V-effect works is a matter of opinion.

Brecht instructed that this caption should be projected while the scene we are going to read from Mother Courage is being acted. What purpose could he have for telling us what will happen?

Three years pass, & Mother

Courage, with parts of a Finnish regiment, is taken

prisoner.

Her daughter is saved, her Wagon likewise, but her Honest

Son dies.