During the time period of and between World War I and World War II, major societal changes began to occur. Fascism, totalitarianism, and socialism began to take hold in certain societies, and economies began to fall. The general social unrest that was occurring throughout the world was also being reflected in theatre, which is when new forms of theatre such as expressionism, futurism, Dadaism, surrealism, and epic theatre began to emerge. Among the pioneers of these avant-garde forms of theatre was Bertold Brecht, a philosophical dramatist who was known for his socialist ideals. He believed that theatre was meant to instruct, not to provide the means for emotional stimulation and purging. Brecht’s ideal form of strictly intellectual epic theatre is not possible, because without catharsis and some form of emotional attachment to theatre, society will be unmotivated to effect change without some element of care for the piece of theatre that they are experiencing. According to Living Theatre, Brecht believed that “theatre could create an intellectual climate for social change.” (Wilson and Goldfarb 424) In order to create this intellectual environment, he favored “alienating” his audiences from dramatic action by creating a world that would not permit their imaginations to completely carry them into the world of the play, and would therefore allow them to focus more on the pressing social issues that were being presented to them. He did this by making the reality that they were inside of a theatre incredibly evident by using techniques such as placing lighting instruments in obvious places, setting his plays in “fictitious foreign lands,” and separating production elements to convey the play’s message individually, as opposed to p... ... middle of paper ... ...ted. It is in this way that catharsis is truly beneficial not only to the means of theatre and an audience, but to society as well. In conclusion, Brecht’s philosophies, though popular, are not necessarily correct in their speculations. While there is validity as to why he would want to induce societal change through intellectual theatre, his form of epic theatre is simply impracticable, because in order to have a causal effect on society and create change, an emotional stimulation or catharsis has to occur in order to spark intellectual interest and create a motivation for societal change. Therefore, catharsis and the purging of one’s emotions is necessary to accomplish Brecht’s goals of epic theatre: to instruct and to create change. Works Cited Wilson, Edwin, and Alvin Goldfarb. Living Theatre: History of the Theatre. Boston, MA: McGraw-Hill, 2008. Print.
"The task of epic theatre, Brecht believes, is not so much to develop actions as to represent conditions. But to ërepresentí does not here signify ëreproduceí in the sensed used by theoreticians of Naturalism. Rather, the first point at issue is to uncover those conditions. (One could just as well say: to make them strange
Epic theatre developed in the 1920’s in Germany. German theatre director Erwin Piscator first introduced epic theatre in 1924 after World War I. After two years, Brecht perfected epic theatre. This theatre style was influenced by the horror and suffering of the middle class and lower clas...
The triviality of melodrama is so often the theatrical scapegoat that boils the blood of the modern-day critic: the sentimental monologues, the martyred young lovers, the triumphant hero, and the self-indulgent imagery. Melodrama would seem the ultimate taboo; another failed Shakespearean staging or even worse, an opera minus the pretty music. Ironically, Bertolt Brecht, dramatic revolutionary and cynic of all things contrived found promise in the melodramatic presentation. Brecht examined and manipulated the various superficial and spectacular aspects of theatre, establishing a synthesis of entertainment and social criticism as his fundamental goal. Bertolt Brecht employs various facets of melodramatic technique in The Jewish Wife, ultimately reconfiguring the genre and conveying his central theme; a society rendered immobile at the will of a totalitarian regime.
Brecht, Bertolt. Brecht on Theatre: The Development of an Aesthetic. Hill & Wang New York,
In this essay I shall concentrate on the plays 'Road' by Jim Cartwright and 'Blasted' by Sarah Kane with specific reference to use of language and structure of dialogue as examples of dramatic techniques.
Hamlet makes extensive use of the idea of theatrical performance; from revealing characters to not be what they seem - as they act to be - to Hamlet’s play The Mousetrap and his instruction of acting to the players. The extensive use of the stage in the stage directions, as well as numerous monologues and asides, have Hamlet itself acting as a literary device for the motif of theatrical performance.
In a recent performance of the two-man murder mystery at the Geffen playhouse entitled, Murder For Two, the show actively breaks the illusion of the fourth wall by addressing the audience throughout the performance. For example, one of the two actors, who plays multiple characters, breaks character and the fourth wall in order to address the audience when sound effects for a ringing phone are played. In the plays world, its simply the phone of the second actor’s character who is trying to receive a phone call to advance the plot, but in the audience’s world for a split second it seems like the noise is embarrassingly coming from a member of the house. This created some of the funniest moments of the show because of how separate the moment was from the play’s reality. It had such an effective response from the audience simply put, because it was more poignant about the world’s infatuation with cell phone usage than the content of the play, which was purposefully implausible and unbelievable. A choice like this could not be made without directly addressing the audience’s world politically; otherwise it simply would not get a laugh. Whether or not the audience continues to use their phone in public places, the audience, in that moment, took a critical look at their societal state and laughed at it. True Brechtian Theater encapsulates all genres and emotions with the political and
German dramatist Bertolt Brecht, through his clash of ideology with the opposing theories of Realism and Naturalism, developed the concepts of "alienation" and "historification" and through these, successfully made an enormous impact on the world of theatre which continues to this very day. Brecht sought a type of theatre in which the audience could concentrate on a play's themes or didactic statements rather than becoming emotionally engaged with its characters. Thus, he developed the revolutionary Epic Theatre using a series of techniques to draw the audience's attention away from the emotion and feeling of the play and direct it towards the philosophy or moral lesson in the performance. Brecht's fascination was with a social activist theatre and his belief was that the only way to achieve this social action was to eliminate all emotion from the stage.
Community performance can include political debates, social commentaries disguised as autobiographical self-debasing monologues as well as Renaissance Faires with their celebratory and informative performances. Each example can be said to include elements of Brechtian Alienation, even if they are not, perhaps, the performances that Brecht himself had in mind. However, the performances are important in that they force us to examine our own place within both the world of the theater and within our respective realities.
Martin Esslin, an established drama director, scholar, and critic, approaches his analysis of drama by drawing on his practical experience as a director of plays. Esslin implicitly assumes that drama is the most elite of the artistic genres when he directly declares the purpose of his book, which is to answer the question "why should those concerned with art resort to drama rather than any other form of communication?" Esslin then immediately poses another question that he seems to take as a prerequisite for the first question: "What is the underlying, basic nature of dramatic form and what is it that drama can express better than any other form of communication?"
Brechtian theatre, also known as epic theatre, strives to keep the audience members objective and prevents
Hamlet is not only a representation of the world, but it is a presentation of the theatricality of the world, and it aims to acquire the detachment that allows self-reflection. According to Catherine Jo Dixon, the word “meta-theatre” is derived from the Greek prefix meta, which signifies a “level beyond the subject that it qualifies” (1). Arguably one of the most memorable examples of meta-theatricality is from William Shakespeare’s Hamlet in Act III, Scene II, where Hamlet stages a play in an attempt to “catch the conscience of the King” (2.2.526). However, while this is one instance of meta-theatre in Hamlet, Shakespeare created an entire work infused with meta-theatre, either through the direct use of theatre or theatrical metaphors and imagery. Others include Polonius’ praise and report on the Players (Ham. 2.2.325-29), Hamlet’s advice to the Players (Ham. 3.2.1-39), and Hamlet’s antic disposition. The effect of this was that it allowed the emphasis of the contrast between truth and pretence, reality and illusion.
Nevertheless, the question at hand is whether theatre will have a role in the society of the future, where cinema, digital television, and computers will continue to expand and grow. The answer to this question is yes. Heading into the 21st century, theatre will only be a fraction in a solid media industry. However, despite all the excitement technology brings with it, they will never replace theatre because it has something that can not be recreated or offered anywhere else. The cinema and its larger than life world appeals as an affordable alternative. Digital television provides digital interaction between the viewer and the producer. Theatre on the other hand, and its contents may take on a larger dimension, but we receive it directly in flesh and blood – one to one. The magical atmosphere between an actor and spectator who are constantly aware of each other and the theatre’s level of engagement is fundamentally more human and far more intimate.
Theatre as we know it now was born more than two thousand years ago and has gone through many streams until it reached the current modernity. Among these streams is the avant-garde theatre. This theatre achieved a break in the traditional theatre and became the forefront of a new experimental theatre. Therefore it is necessary to ask how this theatre started, what impact it had on society and if this type of theatre is still common in our modern era.
There are distinct differences between the theories outlined within Aristotle’s Poetics and Bharata’s The Nāṭyaśāstra which both attempt to elaborate upon the audience relationship and the phenomenon produced relating to the theatrical experience. However, despite the dissimilarities there are components of catharsis and rasa that share common elements and ideas surrounding the creation and the effects of these experiences. Aristotle contends the cathartic nature of tragedy aids in purgation of emotion, however ultimately limiting it to the powers of tragedy as only creating this, where, contrarily, The Nāṭyaśāstra outlines the power any actor has in creating bhāva, leading to rasa. Whilst both theories do have common attributes in their aims of heightening an audience experience, it is the differentiating that outcomes that greatly affect their overall influence.