Analyze Brecht as the man, the context of his life, his theatre technique of alienation, his theory of historification and his use of episodic theatre.

For Brecht to make the above quote true (“manipulating society back again), he had to create a style of theatre that contrasted any other type of theatre that had already been created. Where he didn’t want the audience to emotionally connect to the characters. His theatre was more informative and forced the viewer to critique what they were watching. Brecht’s epic style contradicts Stanislavsky’s Realism theatre and Ibsen’s Melodrama. He argues that the illusion on stage draws the audience to be too emotionally attached to the characters and storyline, rather than to think and relate the context to their own lives. Brecht developed his own Drama techniques that made him able to make the audience understand that his plays are informative and make them relate to their own issues.

The use of Alienation in Brecht’s plays brings its own unique way of leaving the audience astonished and sometimes a bit confused. It constantly reminds the audience that what they are seeing isn’t actually happening here in the real world. Making his theatre paradoxal, Brecht wanted the audience to have their own critical opinion of what they were watching and not just accept the invited reading. The use of Alienation in Brecht’s plays means constantly distancing the audience from the emotional status of the play, this includes incorporation of songs, narrative passages, banners and anything that would remind the audience that what they were watching is only acting. In The Caucasian Chalk Circle, Brecht uses the Alienation conventions such as song in narration and the play within a play. The application of song and narration is used whenever there is a new idea within the scene or when the scene changes completely. The use of narration and song starts when the second play is introduced within the first play. This is also another technique of Alienation. As well as Alienation, Brecht used another drama convention called Historification.

Historification in Brecht’s plays involved dramatizing past events rather than an imaginary modernized text. He liked to use material from different times, places and cultures, for example; The Caucasian Chalk Circle was originally from an ancient Chinese play. Historification allows the audience to sit back and learn, criticize and put into perspective on what they would have done to correct what happened in these past events. In The Caucasian Chalk Circle, it not only puts together the communist ideology that whom ever should use the object more efficiently is more worthy to have it, but also parallels with the biblical story of King Solomon and the Baby. When two women claim one child as their own, King Solomon orders for the baby to be cut in half so they can share the baby. One of the women is horrified of the baby being killed and therefore gives up her fight for the baby. This then reveals to King Solomon that she is the true mother of the child. This same story is portrayed though Grusha and the Governors Wife. The baby is put into a circle and the two women are told to pull it out of the circle to them. Grusha is mortified at the thought of the child being hurt and gives up. Azdac sees Grusha’s motherly love for the child and gives the child to her, even though the Governors Wife is the biological mother. When the play cuts to these scenes, it uses a Brectian convention of Epic, or Episodic Theatre.

Epic or Episodic Theatre is a combination of all the conventions of Brechtian theatre. Such as Alienation and Historification. It was Brecht’s response to Ibsen’s melodrama. Where instead of emotionally attaching the audience to the character, he used the Alienation technique to change the viewer into a spectator. He also began using ‘episodes’ to show the passing of time or the parallel time to another issue. This is employed though uses of a narrator, banners and signs, the simple onstage set and the flat white light that creates no extra mood. In The Caucasian Chalk Circle it uses Episodic Theatre to speed up time (the seasons change), jump further into the future (Michael grows up) and parallels time to another event (when the story of Grusha cuts to the story of Azdak).

In conclusion, Brecht was successful in manipulating society back through his productions. His unique style of Epic theatre made the audience ‘think’ rather than to accept the invited reading. This turned the audience into a spectator rather than a viewer and to add their own perspectives and morals to what they just witnessed. He used past events in Historification to allow the audience to make their own decisions on what they would have done to make it better. Brecht’s productions were unlike any other.