The Life and Works of Bertolt Brecht

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The Life and Works of Bertolt Brecht

In this essay I will consider the life and works of Bertolt Brecht, the famous theatre practitioner who has had such a dramatic impact on our understanding of the theatre and acting. First of all I will give a biography of Brecht because it is important to know the background of his life in order to understand the motives he had for writing and producing plays in the way he did. We will see a direct correlation between events in his life and the plays and techniques that he propagated. I will then move to explore the methods and techniques that Brecht developed, looking at how they came about and who influenced his work. I will look at Brecht’s theory of Epic theatre, tracing the beginnings of this style and looking at the influences that may have helped to form it. To get a clear view of what Epic theatre is like I will compare it to dramatic theatre, which Brecht did himself, in regard to how the audience reacts to it. I will examine Brecht’s theory of using Montage and the effect that he intended to have on the audience. I will consider the origination of Verfremdungseffekt and how this was not an original idea of Brecht’s but something that he identified with because it supported his ideas. Geste was the technique that Brecht wanted actors to use when portraying a character, I will examine what geste is and what may have influenced Brecht to use it. Music for Brecht was a vital part of theatre and I will look at what interested him about using music and the role of music in his Epic theatre. I will consider Brecht’s ideas of what stage design should be like and how he viewed it as something separate to the text and the music. Brecht was a political writer and after reading the works of Karl Marx he wrote and produced didactic plays that reflected the philosophy of communism. Brecht wanted to involve the audience in the debates that he presented in the text and in this way the audience would learn about the arguments and be able to come to an informed conclusion of what they thought. The plays that did this are called ‘The Lehrstuck’ or ‘Learning Plays’ and I will consider how they were presented in order to involve the audience and get them to respond.

        Brecht was born in 1898 to a middle class family in the south of Germany. In his teenage years the First World War broke out and many people he had grown up with were killed. His life was thrown into instability and his family began to struggle financially, which gave him passion to fight for the rights of the poor through his political writing later in his life. He was studying medicine but his real interests were in drama and the theatre. During the war he was posted as a nurse in an army hospital near his home thereby escaping the horrors of the front line. He was dealing with severely wounded soldiers and this shocked him to the realities of death and made him see the futility of war, something that rallied him to fight for peace through his political plays. After the war Brecht went to Munich to find work in the theatre and then on to Berlin, where he stayed. He quickly got to know the main actors and directors of the time and soon became involved in directing and performing. He gathered a group of friends who worked with him and on his behalf, thus began his habit of collaborating with others.

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In the 1920’s Brecht married Helene Weigel who remained his wife for the rest of his life. He also wrote these three plays: Drums in the Night, In The Jungle of the Cities and Baal. Each of these plays was directed by leading directors at the time and they attracted al lot of scandal because of the provoking content and new style. He also undertook his first collaboration with the composer Kurt Weill in Mahogonny and then The Threepenny Opera, which was immensely popular and firmly established him as a leading playwright and theatre practitioner. He started to develop his didactic plays ...

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