Bertolt Brecht

Multi-roling. Alienation. Marxism.

Three words that perhaps define Bertolt Brecht's Epic Theatre.

Epic Theatre was Brecht's attempt at expressing political and social messages through the medium of naturalistic theatre, which at its height, was a theatrical format that mirrored society at the time (Brecht's career spanned from the 1920s to his death in 1956). Brecht decided to use this style of theatre as a force for change. He wanted his audience to think and judge whilst watching, rather than “hang up their brains with their hats in the cloakroom”. Audiences would become emotionally attached to characters and forget about their own lives. The German practitioner used selected theatrical techniques to alienate his audience, allowing them to remain objective and distanced from emotional involvement. They were watching theatre; a presentation of life, not life itself.

What were Brecht’s chosen techniques?

Epic Theatre’s goal was to remind the audience they were watching a play. Ways Brecht did this included:

• Narration/third person narration

  • Telling the audience what is happening in the story is effective at alienation.

  • We could use it in the third person – a character interrupting a scene to express how their character is feeling (e.g., “Dan felt his anger rise within. The girl wasn’t listening to him.”)

  • We can’t use this technique as we are not using voice in this production. However, placards could tie into this.

• Direct address, or “Breaking the fourth wall”

  • Speaking directly to the audience is perhaps the most effective way of alienating them; it destroys any illusion of reality.

  • This was famously done by Brecht in The Caucasian Chalk Circle, where “Grusha” pleads to save “baby Michael”: “I brought him up, shall I also tear him to bits? I can’t.”

  • We can’t use this technique as we are not using voice in this production.

• Using placards

  • A placard is a sign that presents additional information to the audience that deepens their understanding of what’s going on.

(e.g., For example, a married couple is arguing, and the wife is very upset. If the actress held up a placard saying “I’m miserable” that wouldn’t tell us anything about the character that we didn’t already know. However, if her placard said “I’m having an affair” or “I’ve never loved him” the audience would be forced to consider other aspects of their relationship and to think about the deeper reasons behind her tears.

• We are planning to use placards to split scenes up (e.g., transitioning from denial to anger. They could outline what’s happened between scenes).

• Multi-roling

  • Multi-roling is a technique where an actor plays multiple characters, defining their change by altering their costume, voice, body language or movement. If the audience can clearly see the same actor is in another role, it will remind them they are watching theatre.

  • Being displayed as shadows is limiting as we cannot use our voices to demonstrate a change. We would have to add an obvious piece of costume (e.g., a hat) or exaggerate different movements (e.g., an old man hobbling, compared to a young man with correct posture).

• Song and dance

  • Songs are used as brief interruptions of action to alienate the audience further. The lyrics and music often conflict and can sometimes be jarring, to provoke thought in the audience.

  • We can’t use this technique as we are not using voice in this production.

• Lighting and set

  • Brecht used simplistic lighting (usually a plain white light) and minimal sets in his productions to not distract the audience from the message. We are using plain white light for the same reason. We also chose to use shadows for this reason too, as costume and set design can overshadow the message we are giving about grief.

Splendid Theatre

In my own experience, I have seen Splendid Productions’ work multiple times and participated in their workshops when I studied drama GSCE. Splendid Productions are a theatre company who are heavily influenced by Brechtian theatre but use it as a tool to educate while putting their spin on it.

“Splendid are creative adaptors, we take old stories and spin them into new thought prodding, theatrical, inclusive, political, anti-4th wall, heart-exposing versions. As storytellers, we are interested in the universal human experience and specifically what will engage and provoke a young audience. We also want to give a voice to those characters that have been neglected, stereotyped, or written out of the original version.”

- Splendid Productions (2021)

Here is a sample script from their production, Dr Faustus (a production I saw), as well as a link to their website.

Bibliography

Splendid Productions. 2022. About Splendid Productions – Splendid Productions. [ONLINE] Available at: https://splendidproductions.co.uk/about/. [Accessed 22 April 2022].

BBC Bitesize. 2022. Bertolt Brecht – a brief background - Epic theatre and Brecht - GCSE Drama Revision - BBC Bitesize. [ONLINE] Available at: https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/guides/zwmvd2p/revision/1. [Accessed 22 April 2022].