Epic theatre
Epic theatre is a theatrical movement that merges traditional dramatic techniques with epic storytelling, encouraging actors to engage the audience through direct commentary and discussion. Coined in the early 1920s, the term gained prominence through the work of German playwright Bertolt Brecht, who refined the concept in the mid-20th century. This form of theatre seeks to provoke critical thinking rather than emotional engagement, urging audiences to view characters and narratives objectively. Brecht's approach was influenced by earlier German stage director Erwin Piscator, who developed innovative techniques and emphasized instructive content in his productions.
Central to Brecht's epic theatre is the "alienation effect," which aims to remind viewers of the play's constructed nature, thus enhancing their capacity for reflection. Brecht employed minimal staging and bright lighting to disrupt the illusion of reality, alongside musical interludes to reinforce key messages. His works, which often carried strong social and political themes, aimed not only to entertain but also to inspire change and hope. Brecht's influence remains significant today, as modern theatre and film continue to draw on the principles of epic theatre to address contemporary social issues.
Epic theatre
Epic theatre is a form of theater that blends traditional dramatic technique with epic narrative, allowing actors to address the audience with their commentary and discussion. Although the term was coined in the early 1920s, the concept of epic theatre was solidified in the dramatic theories of German playwright Bertolt Brecht in the mid to late 1920s. Epic theatre established a style of writing and directing aimed at forcing the audience to think about the play and its characters objectively. Brecht also referred to this type of theater as instructive theater, since it sought to teach its audience. Brecht and his contemporaries wanted their audiences to feel estranged from the play's characters so viewers would not feel any empathy for them. This included an absence of certain theater methods developed to make an audience feel a connection to the play, such as naturalistic acting and staging. Without this ability to connect, epic theatre proponents argued that audiences could then reflect and draw their own conclusions about the issues presented in the play.
History
Although epic theatre was cemented in the works of Brecht, the concept had been established in Germany prior to Brecht moving to Berlin. German stage director Erwin Piscator experimented with stage technique in the early 1920s and developed an instructive method of theater that would precede the epic theatre movement. Piscator was a revolutionary and disagreed with a number of German political beliefs of that era. After serving in World War I, Piscator started a theater company that staged plays by writers who agreed with his social and political theories. Piscator established an avant-garde style of stage production and was known to reinterpret plays to suit his philosophies. He introduced a variety of technical aspects into his plays, such as captions, projection of images, musical numbers, and narrators, referring to his techniques as "epic dramas." Piscator's techniques inspired a number of theater personalities, most notably Bertolt Brecht.
Brecht's Concept
Brecht's formulation for epic theatre had several inspirations other than Piscator. The earliest influence on his epic theatre concept was the German Expressionist movement of the 1920s. Expressionism was an art form that emphasized the subjective, or individual, perspective. Expressionists aimed to disconnect audience members from the physical reality of the world in an effort to make them understand the meaning of an emotion, not just the feeling of it. Expressionism was most commonly seen in painting and poetry but later migrated to film, music, architecture, dance, and the stage.
Brecht also found inspiration in Marxism, the theories of Karl Marx that stressed the intellectual analysis of humans and society. Brecht used Marxian thought to frame his plays' narratives. He wanted to appeal to the audience members' reasoning instead of their emotions. He believed theater should be entertaining but also morally instructive and socially provocative. To achieve this, Brecht developed the Verfremdungseffekt, or "alienation effect," which compelled audiences to acknowledge the play's illusions. This forced spectators to confront the fact that they were viewing a play and to think more critically about its message. Brecht did not want his viewers to become caught up in the emotion of a scene and lose the meaning of it.
To remind the audience of the play's unreality, Brecht employed a number of staging techniques. He would often cover the entire stage in bright white light, making the whole stage the center of the action. He would also leave the stage lights in view of the audience. Brecht preferred to use very few stage props or suggestive scenery, instead illustrating his points with film-projected captions or handwritten signs. He would also write musical numbers into his plays when he wanted to emphasize an important idea. Brecht required a similar disconnect from his actors and commanded them to remain disengaged from the characters they were playing.
Brecht and Piscator worked together on several plays throughout the late 1920s. Brecht also continued to refine his definition of epic theatre through articles and essays. In one of his essays, he distinguished epic theatre from dramatic theater by its ability to make viewers think something they had never thought before. Dramatic theater aimed to make the audience relate to the characters. Brecht viewed this technique warily, however, believing it discouraged free thought. Dramatic theater considered suffering inescapable, but Brecht wanted his epic theatre to give people hope and inspire change. As he explained, when the dramatic theater audience weeps, they weep because the actors do. When the epic theatre audience weeps, they weep because they want to.
Brecht was forced to leave Germany in the 1930s when the Nazi regime gained power in the country. He wrote a number of his most influential plays in exile. Many of Brecht's most popular plays did not grace the stage until the late 1930s and early 1940s. These works included Leben des Galilei (1938; Life of Galileo), Mutter Courage und ihre Kinder (1939; Mother Courage and Her Children), and Der gute Mensch von Sezuan (1941; The Good Person of Szechwan, or The Good Woman of Setzuan). In 1949, he returned to Germany, where he earned praise as one of the most influential figures of twentieth-century theater. A number of well-known playwrights went on to embrace and adapt Brecht's epic theatre techniques, including John Arden, Edward Bond, Thornton Wilder, Peter Weiss, and Roger Planchon. Contemporary theater incorporates many principles and techniques of epic theatre, and it remains relevant in the twenty-first century, given various modern social and political challenges. Epic theatre’s influence is also evident in film, and Brecht remains recognized as a highly influential literary figure.
Bibliography
Banham, Martin. "Epic Theatre." The Cambridge Guide to Theatre, Cambridge University Press, 1995, p. 34513.
Benjamin, Walter. Understanding Brecht. Verso, 1998, pp. 15-25.
“Epic Theatre and Brecht.” BBC, www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/guides/zwmvd2p/revision/8. Accessed 11 Dec. 2024.
Frimberger, Katja. “‘Cultivating the Art of Living’: The Pleasures of Bertolt Brecht’s Philosophising Theatre Pedagogy.” Studies in Philosophy & Education, vol. 41, no. 6, Nov. 2022, pp. 653–68. EBSCOhost, search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=f6h&AN=159599320&site=ehost-live. Accessed 11 Dec. 2024.
Reinelt, Janelle. After Brecht: British Epic Theater. The University of Michigan Press, 1996. 1–10.
"Theory: Alienation Effect." Beautiful Trouble, beautifultrouble.org/toolbox/tool/alienation-effect. Accessed 11 Dec. 2024.