Literary Contributions Of Brecht

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

Punch-drunk is a British company that performs a wide variety of theatrical performances and transforms them into the wild and the peculiar. It was founded in 2000 (En.wikipedia.org. (2017) by Artist and Director Felix Barrett, who was award an MBE on July 5th 2017 for his work in the theatre industry (Anon, (2017). The Company has been producing shows for 17 years, taking classical storytelling and adding their own twist on the story. The stories are then turned into real-life pieces that are not staged in a typical classical theatre, but in various locations that are well-suited to each part of the story for example, an old warehouse or an ancient asylum. This gives the audience a sensory perception of the world around them and presents them with a joyful experience of witnessing a story told in a way that’s not just the lifeless classical proscenium arch stage layout and more of a place where they can watch the action at different angles taking audience awareness out of the picture and applying the “Fourth wall technique” used by Dennis Diderot (En.wikipedia.org. (2017). This keeps the audience on edge and scares ordinary audiences away from Punch-drunk as the work that they produce is regarded as “out of the ordinary “by most classical theatre audiences. Some of the parts of the story contains physical theatre (Punch-drunk (2017). making the performance non-naturalistic and naturalistic, simultaneously.

Graphic depictions develop a strong clarification, which enables the audience to illustrate illusions of reality. Misto illuminates social realism through the use of props such as the motel room; fridge, bed, table and suitcases, creating a realistic scene which also develops stage direction and setting. This intrigues the audience into a “real life” re-enactment developing the feeling of being a part of the play and the reality of war. Misto manipulates our emotions through the use of stage directions exposing a certain mood, mastering characterisation throughout the playwright. This creates an instant connection to the past which adds immediacy to the actions occurring, providing the audience with a profound understanding of Bridie and Sheila. Misto’s clique use of costumes for the women express individuality of Bridie and Sheila, insisting the audience that the two women have respect for themselves and always appear presentable, such as Sheila with her gloves, illuminating the women’s age and era the play was set in. The composer illustrates vivid images to support the theme and context of war. Distinctively visual images represent and secure the audience’s mind and emotions.

However, the experience of the spectators was different at this play. The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui was written to produce an experience known as the alienation effect. The alienation effect, in the words of Brecht himself, is “to make the spectator adopt an attitude of inquiry and criticism in his approach to the incident” (Brecht, 136). In other words, Brecht aimed to “separate” the viewer from the plot and sensation of the play in order to allow them to truly understand and analyze the message. In Arturo Ui, Brecht instigated the alienation effect in multiple ways, the first of which was introducing the play. An announcer at the beginning makes it clear to the audience what they are about to see and what the ending will be. The use of an actor within the play teaching Arturo Ui how to act and the theatricality of the words was meant to further alienate the audience. The cast and crew of the SMTD also

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.

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.

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

In the words of Gay McAuley, “for an activity to be regarded as a performance, it must involve the live presence of the performers and those witnessing it…” (McAuley, 2009, cited in Schechner, 2013, pp.38). This statement recognises the importance of both the actor and the audience for something to truly function as a performance. In addition, Lloyd Llewellyn-Jones highlights the significance of the theatrical space and how it can influence an audience stating that “on entering a theatre of any kind, a spectator walks into a specific space, one that is designed to produce a certain reaction or series of responses” (Llewellyn-Jones, 2002, pp.3). The relationship between actor, audience and theatrical space is no less important today than it was at the time of theatre during the Spanish Golden Age and the creation of Commedia dell’arte in Italy. Despite being very close geographically with theatre thriving for both in the same era, sources that explore the social, cultural and historical context of these countries and the theatre styles will bring to light the similarities and differences. This essay will analyse the staging, the behaviour of the audience as well as the challenges the actors faced, and how this directly influenced the relationship between actor, audience and theatrical space.

Akilas Karazisis’ and Nick Chatzopoulos’ stage directions offer an illuminating insight in the two men’s psychology. One of the facts that struck my attention is that at the beginning of the play the action is evolving at the very front part of the stage, but later on the actors start to “go deeper”, resulting finally at the back wall. It seems like the stage reflects the level of communication Nietzsche and Breuer have; every time that a barrier regarding their relationship is broken, a curtain is rising. Another interesting fact regarding the direction of the performance is the way the female characters are presented: through puppets. This is actually weird if we take into account the major impact they have on Nietzsche and Breuer, but it helps the audience to focus on the male characters, which are actually more important to the plot.

Also whenever the audience feels sorry for a character or situation Brecht cut’s in the scene sometimes using ballads. He does this so they can understand how even though war is a business, it is also is the reason why a mother lost everything. He wants to separate the actors from the audience so that the audience will draw their own conclusions without being influenced. Brecht used epic theater so the audience would not empathize with Mother Courage because she lost her children, to the war. He wanted his audience to examine how war affects the people and their environment. He also wants people to understand that in Mother Courage’s case she believes that all you have to do is survive the war by any means necessary, since she has to get back to business, she never get the opportunity to mourn Katrins nor her sons death, because she believes that her business must go on because the war will go

David Bowie’s theatricality on stage has been influenced by Brecht’s philosophy around performance. Berthold Brecht was a famous German poet, playwright and theatre director most well-known for his use of alienation techniques with his plays (Buckley, 2013). Alienation, distancing the audience from immersing themselves the characters opposed to naturalism Brecht wanted to make the audience critical and aware of what was happening. Brecht mostly used music, songs and gestures to convey meaning in his plays (Buckley, 2013). By doing this he was able encourage the audience to create their own perception of what was occurring. Bowie incorporates this technique within his songs and performances. He feels that it is important “for his audience to have their own association of what I am writing about” (Hale, 2015)

The Life and Works of Bertolt Brecht In this essay I will consider the life and works of Bertolt Brecht, the famous theatre practitioner who has had such a dramatic impact on our understanding of the theatre and acting. First of all I will give a biography of Brecht because it is important to know the background of his life in order to understand the motives he had for writing and producing plays in the way he did. We will see a direct correlation between events in his life and the plays and techniques that he propagated. I will then move to explore the methods and techniques that Brecht developed, looking at how they came about and who influenced his work.

One could say Brecht’s play Mother Courage and Her Children is a tragedy with an anti-war message. It follows the tragic events that surround Mother Courage during the 30 years’ war. Throughout the war, Mother Courage is trying to make a living through her cart. In the beginning of the play, she has all three of her children with her in the cart. However, one by one they get whisked away.