How Does Brecht Make A Form Of Theatre

Our play uses variety of styles, mainly Brecht’s epic theatre as our play depicts political message. Our play is structured as montage as it shows different stages of George’s life in a non-chronological order, we effectively did this

The use of emotive impact is significant in moving the audience into feeling a dramatic feeling of mixed emotions that convey within particular scenes. During the public revelations of Shelia and Bridie's secrets in Act 2, Bridie mentions “that isn’t the truth…she went to the Jap's to a Japanese guard and sold herself for him for tablets”. The contrast between Bridie’s loud angry tone and silence of Sheila proved that. This was very effective in resolving the tension in the play, as the silence aroused a great sense of drama, This quote is an example of Misto’s use of emotive power over the audience, it also contrasts the themes of pity and admiration of both Bridie and Sheila; they are influenced into feeling pity and admiration. Misto’s use of emotive power moves the audience into feeling sadness, pity and admiration that women have endured so much suffering however they are brave enough to tell the whole world of their horrific experiences.

Brecht’s political theatre stems from his political views towards communism and the upper class society. Theatre that comments on political issues within society. Brecht began to have a dislike for the capitalist society he was brought up in and wanted more of an equal approach to the world and the people around him. With epic theatre, Brecht wanted it to be both didactic (able to teach others) and dialectic (able to create discussions and ideas). The audience at no time during an epic play can be seen to be in a trance or take what they see on stage for granted. Our performance is reflective of Brecht and his Epic and Political theatre as we address many political topics such as Marxism and the divides between classes and the corruption of the government. We have props such as protest signs and banners to communicate Brecht’s political theatre to the audience. In the first episode, Brown’s Boys, there is a scene where MPs choke and die after ignoring the recession and protesters emerge into the audience chanting that ‘politics is dead’ and ‘they don’t really care about us’ while holding banners saying, ‘politics is dead’ and ‘Gordon Clown’. This was done as it represented politics and the fact the seriousness of the situation was ignored; showing how quickly the issues with the recession spiralled out of control and became something that even the higher up in society were unable

Bertolt Brecht was born in a German town called Augsburg, on the 10th February 1898. Before 1924, he continued to live in Bavaria where he studied medicine in Munich from 1917-1921. In 1918, Brecht worked helping at an Army hospital during the First World War, and in doing so, started creating his own plays. In this time, he wrote plays such as: ‘Trommeln in der Nacht’ (Drums in the Night – 1922), ‘Baal’ (produced in 1923) and his primary professional production: ‘Edward II’ (1924). After being so horrified by the effects of war he decided to travel to Munich (then following on to Berlin), where he would begin his desired career in theatre. Within this period, Brecht established a vicious hatred towards the middle-class which imitated the people (of that time) being so let down by their generations civilization which had been crushed after the end of World War I. Brecht was influenced by his friends with their Dadaist ideals; aiming to abolish any pieces of bourgeois art that had been condemned as a dishonest standard, from iconoclastic satirical pieces and mockery. Brecht was then educated on Marxist views by Karl Korsch in the late 20s. Korsch was a Marxist theoretician and a communist in the Reichstag who, in 1926, had been excluded and forbidden from the German Communist Party.

“The Shoe- Horn Sonata” is a play by John Misto that gives an insight into two lives of two female POWs in WW II and is a vector of Misto’s thoughts. It explores the little known and often terrible events associated with female prisoners of war. The play follows a friendship of two women through the war to a point of tension that’s beyond what any normal friendship would have to deal with. Misto engages his audience by using a multitude of mediums to portray his story creating a truly multimedia performance. The playwright challenges the audience to look beyond this to the underlying ideas of survival, loyalty and truth.

The focus of this paper will be to compare and contrast the works of two playwrights. The works that will be considered are Molière’s The Would-Be Gentleman and Beaumarchais’s The Marriage of Figaro. Both considered comedies, Moliere’s is a short play that tells the tale of Monsieur Jourdain, a tradesman who desires to become a gentleman. Beaumarchais’s play, second in the Figaro trilogy, follows the series of event prior to Figaro’s wedding. Figaro and his companions scheme to ensure that his marriage occurs smoothly. Furthermore, the plays are dated 100 years apart from each other, and they deal with the representation of social hierarchy, social mobility, and gender roles in various ways. With that in mind, they become good sources to compare and contrast the changes in society that occurred within those 100 years. This paper will compare both plays to examine how Molière further endorses the social values and ideas of his time, while Beaumarchais’s presents a shift in attitude towards those values and challenges them.

How Brecht achieves producing this state of consciousness is more subtle and elegant than the previous technique of having actors walk out with blatant placards to remind the audience that they are watching a play. One of the marks of Brecht’s epic theater is his alienation effect, or “a representation which allows [the audience] to recognize its subject, but at the same time makes it seem unfamiliar” (Brecht 1948, 8).

Brechts work is based on the concept that theatre is a means of political persuasion for the masses. He sees the theatre as a tool to manipulate the audience, and to influence their day-to-day living once that have thought about issues raised during the performance.

Brecht was not the sort of writer or director that wanted an exact portrayal from his actors of how he saw his characters. Nor did he expect the audience to take an exact interpretation from he actors. He wanted the audience to draw some sort of moral from the story that would arouse their sense of reason to affect their own

Kristoffer Diaz’s play, The Elaborate Entrance of Chad Deity, is a play that revolves around a character named Mace, and his career as a wrestler in “The Wrestling” league, as Diaz so refers to the American Wrestling Association within the play. Bertolt Brecht, a theatre practitioner, playwright, and poet, was a teenager during World War I in Nazi Germany. He was disgusted by the world around him, as he witnessed many of his friends sent off to die in the war. Because of Brecht’s opinions on the world around him, he negatively viewed the classical form of theater, what he called ‘dramatic theater’, and created a new idea of theater known as ‘epic theater’. I believe Kristoffer Diaz’s play, The Elaborate Entrance of Chad Deity, to be closely

The ideas of Bertolt Brecht (1898-1965) changed the theatre in many ways. Brecht along with Erwin Piscator developed the style of Epic theatre style contrasting to previous accepted styles. Presentational in form, Epic theatre is a vehicle for social comment through techniques such as: alienation, historification, eclectic influences (highly Asian), constructivism in scenery, disjointed and illogical scene placement, ordinary clothing and lighting, the use of music to detach the audience from emotion, placards and signs and projected images. Didactic in nature Brecht’s works aim to challenge the

Brecht’s ‘Mother Courage and Her Children’ deals with a number of humanitarian and ethical issues, set in the early 17th century, it follows the life of Mother Courage and her three children as they struggle to survive in the midst of the Thirty Years War. However, unlike many plays, the key to understanding Mother Courage, lies with the appreciation and acknowledgement of the context in which it was written. The first performance of Mother Courage took place in Berlin in 1941, through the use of the epic theatre practice of historification Brecht was able to set the action of the play in the past, to be able to draw parallels with contemporary events. However, other than criticising the futility of war, Brecht’s epic

As the house lights went dark and the music began onstage I was already hooked by the design and sounds of the set. The DePauw University theater department put on Bertolt Brecht’s play The Good Person of Szechwan on November 17th through the 20th directed by Gigi Jennewein and performed by the DePauw University community among other surrounding communities. When we attended on the 17th I was curious as to how the director and the actors in this performance would relate a play to recent times considering the play was written in 1941. The scenery was quite interesting and fascinating, and the moving piece used for different scenes was intriguing. The costumes looked appropriate to the performance, the original music from the saxophone and drum box was in sync with the performers, and the actors and actresses delivered a performance to with very little criticism could be something amazing. That said this is an interesting play that everyone should attend, as it gives a contemporary feel for this classic play.

with her words of wisdom; she posits that to receive his reward, he must repress his immediate anger, and instead cultivate a long, "slow-burning" rage (Baxter 260). It seems that what Brecht is here suggesting is that, in order for one 's negative emotions to produce a fruitful result, one must learn to repress his or her immediate emotional responses. Indeed, Mother Courage often seems to uphold such a philosophy of emotion. Throughout the play, she often responds stoically to tragedies. For example, at the deaths of children Swiss Cheese and Kattrin, she does not so much as shed a tear, but instead treats their losses matter-of-factly, and immediately continues on with her business. It seems that Mother Courage is cultivating this "slow-burning" rage, repressing her emotions at the deaths of her children and the trauma of war, until they can aid in some unknown, productive goal. Baxter confirms that Brecht "seems to argue that to keep going in life, with moral or righteous indignation, you need a ‘long anger,’" such as exhibited in the character of Mother Courage (260). Perhaps this is the philosophy that Brecht himself adopted, as he attempted to repress his feelings of anger and frustration at the onslaught of World War Two.

Brecht, Bertolt. “Mother Courage and Her Children.” Jacobus, Lee A., eds. The Bedford Introduction to Drama. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin's, 2009. Print.