Brecht and Epic Theatre essays

Brecht and Epic Theatre essays Clearly Defining What Brecht Meant By Epic Theatre Show How He Sort To Achieve His Aims Through His Production Methods Brecht was reacting against the theatre of the time; this was because traditional theatre had a fantastic set, elaborate costumes, sentimental music and sloppy emotion. He thought this type of theatre was aesthetically wrong as he felt a good story had been taken and made sentimental. He also believed this type of theatre was morally wrong, as the plays did not portray a truthful picture of everyday life. For example a poor person would have rosy cheeks and look well fed, which was not the case. It was also the events of the time that also inspired Brecht to create Epic theatre and that was the nazi movement. In the rallies people became so emotionally involved that they would lose control of their bodily functions but also did not have the ability to stand back and look at it analytically to realise what was going was wrong and how to stop it. From this Brecht wanted a change to take place in the theatre. His aims for this new type of theatre were firstly to entertain, because he knew only then could he change people's minds and in turn change society. Theatre in Brecht's view was that not only should it entertain but also educate and teach people. This is why he wrote the 'Leherstuck' (Learning Plays) which at first were didactic but after having lessons in the Marxist theory around 1927 they became more dialectical, this is obvious in all his works. Brecht believed the way to teach was to reject emotion as he said 'one mustn't congeal them in emotional jelly', although later he changed his mind. Brecht basically wanted a new type of theatre for the 'scientific' age. Dramatic theatre was the traditional form at the time but Brecht along with Piscator created the first Epic theatre. Epic theatre took Brecht years to formulate and was not firmly established until the 1940's-50's. Both forms of theatre had a di...