3 11 15 Bertolt Brecht 1898 1956 German Playwright Grew up as third Reich rose in Germany Exiled 1930s and 1940s Marxism 1920s Helped Develop epic theatre Founded Berliner Ensemble 1949 Epic Theatre Erwin Piscator s Proletarian theatre Political theatre instigate social change Documentary elements dramatize current events Theatrical and technical elements Epic in scope Brecht s Epic Theatre Theatre should inspire audiences to social change Realism attempts to imitate reality but doesn t urge audience to change it In Epic Theater o Nothing is natural or inevitable o Emphasize historical social material circumstances and how to change them Marxist Theory and Brecht s Plays Das Kapital o Capitalism conceals means of production o Workers sell labor to produce commodities o Commodities seem alien as if produced by magic their own kind of nature o If workers see how things operate the will fight for change Brecht realism operates like capitalism o Conceals the structures that make it operate o Seems natural audience accepts the illusion as natural o Seems apolitical but is really a bourgeois view of the world o Epic Theater expose the means of production Conventions of Brecht s Theater Plays are episodic Bare Stage Exposed Lights Projections and placards Acting balance between realist and representational Plays ask audience to question their notion of reality what is natural Alienation Effect Verfremdungseffekt Mother Courage and Her Children
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