Berthold Brecht

Brecht was interested in Karl Marx’s theories on socialism, this would be interoperated into some of his work. Brecht and “epic theatre” came about when melodrama, realism and naturalism were popular theatre forms. Naturalistic play aimed to reflect life and allow the audience to immerse themselves within the story, believing it was real. The audience could escape life and stop thinking about current affairs. 

Brecht hated this and wanted people to think, challenge and change not just accept and enjoy. He created his new form of Theatre in 1920s designed to make the audience question what their watching, he called it epic theatre.

He used these techniques…

V effect: This was used to direct the audiences attention to something new, he would interrupt the scene and throw in something unexpected. This would stop the audience getting lost in the emotion and story of the play making them able to think and question. The idea was to consistently remind the audience they were in a theatre, watching a play. He did this by, keeping the house lights on so the audience members were aware of each other. Music and dance broke up scenes, placards were used to give the audience info. All characters might be dressed in black rather than  individually costumed.

Brecht believed that the actors job was merely to show what happened, that the actor doesnt need to identify with the character and play it realistically, the opposite to Stan. 

Brecht believed actors should: 

-Make sure voice and movement do not match. 

-Speak as if quoting someone else and not dialogue.

-speak the stage directions aloud

-perform directly to the audience