Bertlot Brecht1898 - 1956

Summary of the life and works

of

Bertlot Brecht

Eugen Bertholt Friedrich BrechtEugen Bertholt Friedrich BrechtBiographyBiography

• Brecht was born into a world of conflict and contradictions, on 4th august 1898 in Augsburg, Bavaria.

• By his 16th birthday World War 1 had broken out and he had witnessed a number of deaths of those he was associated with at school. Financial, political and personal instability were a way of life and would remain so for Brecht till his death 48 years later.

• Brecht worked in an army hospital after studying medicine at Munich University from 1917 – 1921. This extreme work exposed him to the sight wounded soldiers and all his life he was said to never get over the smell of death. – this could explain some of Brecht’s forthcoming extreme theatre methods…

BiographyBiography• The 1920s were an eventful decade for

Brecht; he divorced his first wife, married his second and had written 3 plays , “Baal” , “Drums in the night” and “In the jungle of cities” he also published a volume of short stories, directed a play a “A man’s man” and had his first collaboration with the composer Kurt Weill in “Mahagonny”. This was followed by the immensely popular “The Three Penny opera”.

• He also started to develop his more unique views which evolved to become Epic Theatre. This came about as he started to reject idealism in favour for individualism.

• He was forced to flee Germany in 1933 due to his leftist political beliefs (he had quickly become favoured towards the ideas on Karl Marx and his socioeconomic theories). He also opposed Hitler and the Nazi regime. This lead to him spending 14 years in exile travelling into Scandinavia, where he wrote his major plays before reaching the safety of America.

BiographyBiography• His theory evolved through practise into

Epic Theatre where he believed theatre should not only reflect our world but change it. He drew on all available resources for his plays including staging collaborations with other directors, new music with composers and used the help of designers, these together made a totally new form of theatre.

• By the end of his life he was an important figure with theatre, he had astounded Europe with his productions due to the unique and extreme staging and acting, which conversed to the audience in apparent simplicity.

• Over 40 years since his death and it is striking that all his theories (especially his thoughts on Epic theatre) are still relevant in theatre today.

Through out this presentation we will be exploring the theories and themes that will help you to understand the excitement and strengths of Brecht and his productions.

Bibliography of WorksBibliography of Works• BAAL:

Baal was written to visually and verbally and express Brecht’s dislike of Hanns Johst’s play “Der Einsame” as the play had the qualities of naturalistic writing that Brecht didn’t approve of.

• This first play consisted of short scenes which could be moved around without any apparent continuity, he borrowed this structure from the practitioner ‘Buchner’. This would later on be involved in the construction of Epic Theatre.

• Baal is a text that could be taken as a partial self portrait. Its anti-hero (a protagonist who displays less pleasant characteristics of a human being) is a poet and singer; similar to a young Brecht, showing traits of a nonconformist.

A quote from Brecht’s book: The complete plays of Buchner

“Aristotelian (Dramatic) theatre {one scene leading to another: growth} and his own epic “Epic Theatre” {each scene on its own: montage}”

Bibliography of WorksBibliography of Works• “Drums in the Night”• This was Brecht’s 2nd play which brought in

a new and popular theme of the time; a return of a soldier from war

• By using a post-war soldier as his main protagonist, Brecht showed a man’s thoughts within a revolutionary and war-stricken environment. Produced in 1922 it coincided with the unsettled post-war atmosphere in Germany. Banners were placed in the auditorium asking the audience “not to stare romantically”.

Brecht here was asking the audience not to relate to the character directly or pity them, instead they should be seen solely as an object

Here we are starting to see Brecht de-romanticise the act of watching theatre by asking his audience to distance themselves from a character, This is where we begin to see the idea of “Epic Theatre” (portrayed in his later works)

Bibliography of WorksBibliography of Works• “In the Jungle of Cities”• In this his 3rd play Brecht enlisted the

help of a designer friend ‘Casper Neher’. The play was set in a superficial Chicago and was presented like a boxing match.

• Brecht found collaborative inspiration from Upton Sinclair’s novel “The Jungle”.

• For Brecht Chicago was all he loved and hated about the “American Dream”. This was not the last occasion were Brecht set his productions in an imaginary city.

• He again used the theme for an American Dream setting in his works:St Joan of the Stockyards,Happy End, The Resistable Rise of Arturo

He moved on to make Soho in London the setting of his sensational play “The Threepenny Opera”.

However it was not a city that audiences in the “American Dream World” could recognise.

This is one of his last productions before we saw the full extent of his theory “Epic Theatre”

Epic TheatreEpic Theatre• Brecht’s theory's, which he went on to call

“Epic Theatre” were directed against the illusion created by traditional theatre in which the audience witnessed a slice of life.

• Instead he encouraged spectators to watch events on stage dispassionately and to reach their own conclusions.

• To prevent spectators from becoming emotionally involved Brecht used a variety of techniques, among them was the Verfremdungseffekt (Alienation or estrangement effect). This was achieved through such devices as; unfamiliar settings, interrupting the action with songs and announcing the contents of each scene through posters.

Alienation (V effect)

Brecht used various techniques to make sure that thought took priority over emotions in his audience. He had to make sure they knew they were there to engage and react to the play, rather than to merely enjoy, emotionally, what was in front of them.

Lighting, Sounds & DesignLighting, Sounds & Designwithin epic Theatrewithin epic Theatre

• LightingThe lights were to be in full view of the audience as were there operators to ensure actors were seen in the same world as the audience. Light would indicate the passage of time or change of scenes rather than create mood or atmosphere.

•Sound

Rather than accompanying the action on stage, music was meant to comment on or conflict with the action on stage.

• Stage Design

Brecht only used scenery and props that were directly necessary for telling the story. His stages would therefore be almost bare and empty. He made it so that any set changes would be made in full view of the audience. As for the props themselves they were often highly symbolic and would be representations rather than real object.

This theory we feel reflects the future works of Peter Brook (a fellow practitioner) as shown in his production of “The Grand Inquisitor”. Were he uses minimal setting using only 1 chair & 1 book, however it is how he uses and positions these props which help us understand the deeper meaning of the play and character.

Comparisons BetweenComparisons BetweenDramatic & Epic TheatreDramatic & Epic Theatre

• Dramatic Theatre (the norm)Dramatic Theatre (the norm)• Plot: Has a beginning , middle and end,

and issues raised in the play are resolved

• Implicates the spectator in a stage situation: suggests to the spectator that what their watching is like real life

• Provides the audience with sensations: a theatre of illusion with ideas reinforced

• The spectator is involved in something

• The spectator is in the thick of it, shares the experience

• Growth: events follow each other in a smooth progression

•Epic Theatre (Brecht’s Theory)Epic Theatre (Brecht’s Theory)

•Narrative: Begins anywhere, continues and stops. Issues are not resolved

•Turns the spectator into an observer: but suggests that the spectator can question what he or she is seeing

•Forces the audience to take decisions: makes it clear that there are problems to be solved

•The spectator is made to face something

•The spectator stands outside, studies

•Montage: events are shown in self contained scenes

Summary- Epic theatreSummary- Epic theatre

• Epic theatre stands for a theatre of high complex theoretical and practical ideas, which took Brecht most of his life to formulate. We have demonstrated that the early plays had traces of the ‘Epic’, but it did however take a good ten years for all aspects to come together. It wasn’t until his last great plays in the 1940s and 1950s that epic theatre was finally firmly established.

InfluencesInfluences• Georg Buchner 1813-37: Involved

himself in radical politics, which nearly lead to his arrest.

• One of his overriding themes in his plays was mans search for his destiny in a hostile world. (Brecht)

• He is famous mainly for his influence on the expressionists in which the protagonist would move through a sequence of dramatic sequences each having some psychological or symbolic importance in itself.

•Frank wedekind 1864-1918: He was renowned as a cabaret artist, thus he acted as a close role model for Brecht. As Brecht attracted his own share of scandal in the cabaret sellers of Munich and Berlin.

•Their plays have a similar structure: short scenes seemingly unconnected, which by their relentless forward movement build to an often shattering physical climax.

•Like Brecht Wedekind had a contempt for bourgeois society and his plays tended to focus on the double standards of sexual morality in Germany, especially as they effected the young.

Karl Marx 1818-83 (who is buried in Highgate cemetery round the corner form Jamie’s house): he provided the philosophy for the Russian revolution in 1917.

•Many of his reforming ideas were incorporated into the new state.

•It just so happens that Brecht’s convictions with the law seem to coincide with aspects of Marxist thoughts.

To summarise:To summarise:Jamie thinks: Brecht has come up witha unique and inspirational idea, but hethinks it might be too imaginative in

performance.

Caroline thinks: Even with Brecht’s extreme techniques with the uses of lighting and sound, it is quite difficult for the spectators to be dispassionate while watching and for the actor to not integrate with the character they are portraying.

Roxy thinks: That with great understanding and knowledge of epic theatre, a Brecht production could be extremely hard hitting. However with out knowing all of Brecht’s theory's and reasoning's behind his work, his plays could be imaginatively challenging for a modern day audience.

Vicky thinks: That Brecht's theory's and practises were relevant to the time of his works, e.g. emotion brought up by the war. But there's no innovative relevance in modern day times. As world conflicts don’t effect modern day society in the same way.

““Brecht is the key figure of our time, and all theatre work today at some point Brecht is the key figure of our time, and all theatre work today at some point starts or returns to his statements and achievements.”starts or returns to his statements and achievements.”

- Brook, P, The empty stage, penguin, 1986. - Brook, P, The empty stage, penguin, 1986.

BibliographyBibliography

• “Wikipedia” internet site

• “Collected Plays” 1994 Brecht, Bertolt.

• “Theatre studies” 2000 Simon Cooper

• “The empty stage” 1986 penguin