Bertolt Brecht Contribution to Modernist Theatre - Essay Example

? Bertolt Brecht contribution to modernist theatre Bertolt Brecht contribution to modernist theatre Introduction Bertolt Brecht was a German poet, play writer and performer that have been regarded as one of the prominent and influential personalities in the history of the theatre in the twentieth century. He has been credited for bringing some nonconventional and transforming changes in to the theatre. He encouraged new trends and thinking style among the audience and motivated them to think about the message and theme of the play rather becoming involved in the story line and characters of the play (Weber, 1984). Brecht invented and introduced the use of alienation effects in the theatre and plays. He is among the pioneer artist to develop a form of drama that has been called epic theatre in which ideas and didactic lessons are supposed to be more important and attention catching as compared with the other features and elements of the play (Frederic, 1992). Bertolt Brecht used his invented technique in many plays to attain his aim to encouraging people to think about the end, lesson and message rather focusing upon the emotions and characters. The following essay aim to discuss the way Brecht changed the traditional style in which the plays were written and staged. In this regard, the essay describes the efforts of Brecht in innovating new technique and style for the theatre and its use in his dramas. It has been unveiled that in the beginning Brecht was not completely successful to practice the alienation technique for gaining the desired results however; as his work grew mature he proved the significance of the technique in form of several successful epic plays (Frederic, 1992). Bertolt Brecht and modernist theatre – Alienation technique and epic plays Bertolt Brecht held the firm belief that the actors should always strive to produce alienation effects in the drama in order to discard the traditional style of persuading the audiences with their characters in the play. Rather putting the audience into a trance the actors should go into the trace their selves so that they can present natural and lively performance in front of the audience. He believes that the way of speaking and the movements of the artists must be convincing and effective enough that audience can feel the real message behind the play rather getting lost in the fabrication of dialogues delivery. His dramas are considered as most importance and original work pieces in the European drama and he has widely recognized as most influential and prominent European materialist writer of the 20th century (Weber, 1984). The theatre practice of the twentieth century was heavily influenced and developed from the contributions of Brecht to the theatrical production and dramaturgy. He spent several decades in experimenting and developing the theory and practice of his epic theatre and devoted lot of time and efforts to bring something new and useful in the process of play making. He was inspired from the ideas of early theorists Erwin Piscator and Vrevolod Mayerhold regarding the use of theatre for as platform for the propagation of the political ideas. He believes that drama and theatre are medium for the transmission of ideas and thoughts and the audience should not stop thinking when the drama ends but the drama should be meaningful enough that the audience could initiate the thinking process during and after watching the drama (Willett, 1977). Brecht wants to support re-functioning of theatre in to a social use rather becoming a source of entertainment. His concentrated efforts and research work around the topic have resulted in the evolution and popularity of Brechtian theories and techniques that were widely uses in the theatre and cinematic practice. In the early days of his career in theatre and play making Brecht was more interested in doing experiments with dada and expressionism. However, as he proceeds with his work he attained maturity and new ideas and within few years he succeeded to develop a unique style of his own that was perfectly suitable for his vision regarding the use and role of cinema. At first he detested the Aristotelian drama an order to attract the audience in to a trace like state. He wanted his audience not to feel the emotions but think towards the end of the drama. He realized that there is need of employing special techniques to encourage this type of theatre and play making. He conducted concentrated research on the cinematic techniques and finally he came up with the invention of alienation effects. The basic purpose of this technique was to motivate and allow the audiences to retain their critical detachment with the play and its message. His invented technique was then used in the production of several epic dramas (Willett, 1977). He developed four great plays during the time period of 1938 and 1945 in which he attempted to practically present his theory of alienation in order to promote the concept of epic theatre. For the first time, he used his technique in the production of his play Mother Courage and her children in which he attempted to use the alienation technique. Though the play was successful and still it has been regarded as one of the most impressive play of his time, Brecht failed to gain his actual target. In the play, he depicted the story of a women who was a merchant of clothing, food and brandy etc. in order to earn money of her family she used to follow the Swedish and imperial army in her covered wagon and sale them supplies. She was successfully managing to get the livelihood for the family however, but when the war grows heated, she realized that due to her professional she is an extreme danger along with her children. However, despite the hardship and pressure of the situation, the courageous old women doggedly refused to give away her wagon (Frederic, 1992). The play has been regarded as a great anti-war play. The central character of the play Mother Courage has been drawn from the short novel The Run agate Courage that was written by a 17th century German novelist Grimmershausen. The play shows the courageous story of a canteen woman. She decided to earn money for her family from the war but in the end she lost three of her kids in the war that seem source of earning livelihood for her. In the play Brecht used the alienation technique and intended to create an end that does not arose to imitate the main character of the play. In the play, he adopted a different approach and unlike the Greek tragedies he didn’t portrayed the character of the mother courage as heroic women far above the average people. Instead he shows that she was not a noble woman (Subiotto, 1982). Using this technique, he wanted that the audience could not develop sentimental and emphatic feelings for the mother courage or any of the other character. He set the play in a manner that 12 years were represented in 12 scenes and there was not enough time given to the audience to think deeply about any of the characters. It was an anti-war drama in which he wanted the audience to focus upon the issue being depicted and not to get emotionally involved with the characters of the drama. He wanted to see the message of the drama as its prominent feature without looking for the support of the characters (Weber, 1984). Thought his play, he shows the practical implication of his invented technique in from of epic play. He attempted to achieve the alienation effect through the use of placards revealing the event of the scene, change of character and costume on the stage and use of simple props, scenery and narration to prevent the audience from getting engaged and emotionally involved with the characters. If he wants to show forest in the play, he used a single tree to make it simple and to keep the scenery effects at lower level. He doesn’t want the audience to lose in the beauty or depth of the props arrangements. The songs were also used to underscore the main theme of the play so that the audience could fully concentrate upon the actual message that the author has intended to convey through the play (Frederic, 1992). In this way, he shows how to keep the attention and focus of the audience towards the actual theme and message of the play not allowing them to develop emotions and sentiments for the characters of the play. The play has widely been regarded as great victory of Brecht because he presented an impressive anti-war epic play using alienation techniques but at the same time the play was also a failure for Brecht because he failed to keep the audience unemotional and detached with the characters in order to analytically response to the play (Subiotto, 1982). The difficulties faced by the women and the courage she showed throughout the play impressed the audience and the character of the mother courage appeared to be an important element of the play along with the message portrayed. Brecht however, wants the message to dominate the play but contrary to his desire the audience got emotionally involved with the miseries and struggle of the mother (Wright, 1989). The play however could not be regarded as failed attempt because t not only impressively presented the anti-war message but show how the implication of alienation techniques in the theatre. Brecht continued with his effort to produce epic play and developed another play Galileo. In this play, he depicted the tale of a passionate and tortured person. The play shows Galileo discovering that earth is not centre of the universe but he remained quiet for several years and didn’t published his findings due to pope’s pressure until he came to know about another Pope. However, even then his findings were not accepted and his great work was destroyed. In this play also Brecht attempted to keep the attention of the audience towards the main theme that tells about the unacceptability of great ideas and work but it is still a fact that the audience felt terror and pity in the story of Galileo (Frederic, 1992). The changed led by Brecht into the theatre and play making were basically led by his vision that when audience found the hero or main character of the drama as a flawless person they immediately develop sympathetic feeling for him without doing any analysis of his flaws. He believes that in such dramas the audience experience the feeling of terror or pity and rather thinking deeply about the message they are led to an emotional catharsis. In this way, the drama fails to convey the real message of the story and the audience found them lost in the portrayal of the characters, their problems and emotions (Subiotto, 1982). He believes that play is not simply to show an action in front of the audiences but it is to enable them critically analyse that action and the motive behind that action. This thing he saw lacking in the drama making of his time due to which he realized that there is need of conducting authentic research within the methodology of play making so that some improvement could be brought and the identified flaw could be removed. His work proposed a new way of play making in which the spectators were not compelled to become emotionally involved with the characters but his plays worked to provoke rational self-reflecting and critical view of the action presented before the audience on the stage (Wright, 1989). In this way he adopted a critical perspective in his plays and encourages the audiences to recognize the prevailing social injustice and exploitation so that they could get some food for thought and get the motivation to play active role in the removal of the social evils (Smith, 1991). The theory presented by Brecht were widely accepted and appraised by the artists and all over the world the play makers followed his theories within their play making. Eventually, a group his dedicated followers was formed with the name of Brechtians consisting of the play makers and directors propagating the theories and teaching of Brecht and following his invented alienation technique in the theatre. He also received many awards and prices for the remarkable contributions to the genre of epic theatre. His work became popular all over the world because it was also translated in to over 40 languages and over 70 volumes of his work were sold around the globe (Smith, 1991). Conclusion The analysis of the work of Brecht unveils that he could truly be regarded among the pioneering of the epic theatre. He has made some significant contribution to the modernist theatre because he was against the conventional ideas of presenting play in front of the audience. In order to do something different he experimented with the play making process and finally he came up with the proposal of using alienation technique in the plays in order to make them more meaningful and useful for the audience. He believes that the play should not only be focused towards providing people short term amusement and entertainment but the theatre must work for providing food for thought to the audience. He observes that it would be possible only if the traditional style of storytelling and presenting in the theatre will change. Thus, he worked to find out the possibilities of bringing changes into the theatre and his quest resulted in the introduction of his intelligent techniques of playmaking. Hence, it is unveiled that Brecht has made some very important and positive changes in the process of play making. He paved the way towards more critical and realistic playmaking so that the theatre could play an influential role in forming the opinion of the people in certain directions. Moreover, the also wants to see theatre as an active and functioning element of the society from where the people can get ideas and motivations for brining social and political changes. His transformational thought allowed him developing several masterpieces that have been regarded his great contribution to the genre of epic drama. He changed the traditional way of play making and his style act as great source of guidance for the play makers of his age as well as for the play makers and artists of the upcoming generation. His contributions to the modernist cinema could not be forgotten because he has written his name at a prominent place within the history of the theatre and play making techniques development. Word Count: 2422 References Frederic. E. (1992). Bertolt Brecht: His Life, His Art and His Times. Citadel Press Book edition. New York: Carol Publishing Group. Smith, I. (1991). "Brecht and the Mothers of Epic Theatre". Theatre Journal 43: pp491–505 Subiotto, A. (1982). ‘Epic Theatre: A Theatre for the Scientific Age’, in Bartram & Wayne, Brecht in Perspective Wright, E. (1989). Postmodern Brecht. Critics of the Twentieth Century Ser. London and New York: Routledge Weber, C. (1984). "The Actor and Brecht, or: The Truth Is Concrete: Some Notes on Directing Brecht with American Actors". The Brecht Yearbook 13: pp63–74 Willett, J. (1977). The Theatre of Bertolt Brecht: A Study from Eight Aspects. Third rev. ed. London: Methuen Read More