THAR 281 1st Edition Lecture18 Outline of Last Lecture I. Quiz #6 Outline of Current Lecture II. Expressionism (1920s)III. Theatre of Cruelty (1930s)IV. Epic Theatre (1930s)Current LectureI. Expressionism (1920s)•term first used in France to describe certain painters•truth was subjective•the world of the play often seems distorted colors, and distorted linesin scenic design to reflect the emotional state of the protagonist (usu-ally tormented)•the eyes are extremely important (“eyes are the window to the soul”),concerned with inner life, wanted to break from the past•mostly Germans (i.e. Van Gogh)II. Theatre of Cruelty (1930s)•Antonin Artaud•Theatre of Cruelty - the name for Artaud’s approach to theatre, most clearly described in his book The Theatre and its Double•The Western theatre is too logocentricThese notes represent a detailed interpretation of the professor’s lecture. GradeBuddy is best used as a supplement to your own notes, not as a substitute.•Theatre should be a sensory, not literary, experience; deeply disturb-ing plays; used sensory overload to stun the audience•“theatre should act like a plague”III. Epic Theatre (1930s)•idea is to break the audience’s tendency to become lost in a play — todistance them from the action so they can think about it•Bertolt Brecht (1891-1956)•Epic theatre is now primarily associated with him. Brecht wrote outspecific theories of epic theatre and wrote several plays that em-bodied his ideas.•Brecht intended his plays to educate audiences about the atti-tudes that underlie social problems - particularly, he was inter-ested in how the upper class was able to continue oppressing the lower class.•Epic Theatre Techniques•Alienation: separate the audience from the play so that they are affected socially•the artifice of theatre•Narrators and placards•Historification•Gestus: a physical action that is repeated, isolated, and intensifiedto reveal some social conflict (i.e. bowing, kneeling, saluting,
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