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Brecht’s theory of drama
- We are lucky with Brecht because he not only left
us a blueprint for his theoretical perspective on the theatre but he also put
his theories into practice on the stage
- His work revolves around the idea that Marxist
drama should not follow Aristotle’s idea for the theatre. Aristotelian drama
suggests that an audience needs to be able to feel that the events presented
to them in the theatre are actually happening "here and now".
- This approach suggests that if audiences react in
the same way (or with the same emotions) to historic dramatic figures (eg
Oedipus, Hamlet) that audiences of previous generations have reacted, this
would undermine one of the motivating forces behind Marxism.
- Marxism suggests that human nature is not
constant
- Human nature is created as a direct result of
changing historical conditions
- So if Aristotle was correct then this very
important aspect of Marxist philosophy would be negated.
- This being so, Brecht didn’t want his audience to
believe in the presence of the characters on the stage. He didn’t want them to
identify with the characters
- He wanted them to make the audience understand
that what it was looking at in the theatre was nothing more than a re-telling
of events.
- He wanted his audience to look at performances
with critical detachment.
- the Verfremdungseffekt (alienation effect)
- the Alienation Effect was created through the use
of devices which were designed to ensure that the audience members were always
conscious of the fact that they were watching a demonstration of human
behaviour instead of an illusion of reality.
- Brecht wanted to provoke the audience into
changing the society in which they lived
- He wanted to achieve this by forcing them to
rethink common ideologies
- he wanted to make the audience to understand that
his characters were not individuals playing in an isolated piece of action,
but rather, they were a part of a much more important world.
- Brecht wanted to blur the boundary between life
and theatre
- He didn’t want audience members walking away
thinking that what they saw on the stage really didn’t have anything to do
with them.
- He also blurred the boundary between the
spectator and the performer
- He subverted traditional expectations of
‘dramatic unity’ by insisting that his endings were always in the hands of the
audience members. His plays are not neatly concluded and no moral is ever
presented. The audience members need to figure all of that out for themselves.
- This is a deliberate subversion of Aristotle’s
notions of catharsis. Aristotle suggests that audience members are in some way
emotionally cleansed by witnessing the great trials and tribulations of great
men and women. Brecht, however, argues that, audience members should leave the
theatre on a high emotional level but the cathartic cleansing will not be
complete until they go out into the world and take some action with regard to
the social injustices that were shown to them.
From:
http://www.mcauley.acu.edu.au/staff/delyse/bertolt.htm
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