Brecht and his techniques

Dramatic Theatre	Epic Theatre
Plot	Narrative
Implicates the spectator in a stage situation	Turns the spectator into an observer
Wears down his capacity for action	Arouses his capacity for action
Provides him with sensations	Forces him to take decisions
Experience	Picture of the world
The spectator is involved in something	He is made to face something
Suggestion	Argument
Instinctive feelings are preserved	Brought to the point of recognition
The spectator is in the thick of it, shares the experience	The spectator stands outside, studies
The human being is taken for granted	The human being is the object of the enquiry
He is unalterable	He is alterable and able to alter
Eyes on the finish	Eyes on the course
One scene makes another	Each scene for itself
Growth	Montage
Linear development	In curves
Evolutionary determinism	Jumps
Man as a fixed point	Man as a process
Thought determines being	Social being determines thought
Feeling	Reason

 Verfrumdungseffekt/Alienation Technique

  This technique is based on making ordinary events epic and detaching the audience emotionally from the play. Brecht developed this in the 1920’s and 30’s because he thought that emotional attachment to a play made it difficult to see its real message. In a conventional play the production was made for the audience to feel what the characters were feeling, focusing on emotion rather than social criticism. He disliked “escapism” and thought people should be faced with real-world issues, keeping always emotional distance from the characters. The best example of this is in his play Mother Courage and Her Children in which no sympathy is created for the mother, and instead makes the audience question the actions of the characters and the performance they’ve seen. "Art is not a mirror held up to reality but a hammer with which to shape it." This sense of strangeness is also achieved through the use of placards, which reveal the events of each scene, juxtaposition, actors changing characters and costume on stage, the use of narration, simple props and scenery and using happy melodies with heavy lyrics.

Didacticism and Breaking the Forth Wall

 Brecht believed that theatrical pieces should have a moral lesson behind them. His plays were used to teach both the audience and the actors about certain aspects of society, politics or economy. Communist in his beliefs, Brecht criticism usually focused on how society was unequal and how the upper classes were evil. “The Forth Wall” is a term used to define an imaginary wall separating the audience from the stage. In realistic productions, actors do not “break” this wall by looking and acknowledging the audience, simulating therefore real events. The audience therefore is physically separated from the action, but more emotionally involved because of its story and because there is a sense that the action is happening far away. Brecht believed however that the audience should be faced with moral dilemmas on the spot and with this grip them to the narrative, despite it possibly involve a break in character. This is also used to make the audience feel apart of the action and not merely observing; being faced with moral decisions in a pro-active way.

Gestus

Brecht believed that an actor should present a character in a way that wasn't an impersonation, rather, a narration of the actions of the character. He did this because he wanted to constantly remind his audience that they were watching a play. He also believed that if the audience developed an emotional attachment to the characters, then they could not evaluate the social realities of the play. Stanislavski thought that if an actor believed he was a character, then the audience would believe this as well, and feel the emotions that the character was feeling. Brecht did not want this to happen; he wanted the audience to question, make comment and interpret what was on the stage. The Brechtian theatre does not show the human nature of an individual but reveals collective human relations. The story is the point of interest, not the characters. The story is the sequence of events that is the social experiment, allowing the interplay of social forces, from which the play's lesson emerges. If the audience does not maintain a distance between the characters and themselves then this cannot be achieved. Acting in Epic Theatre means that an actor is required to play characters believably without convincing either the audience or themselves that they are, indeed, the characters. There is an audible and visual distance between the actor and their character and the actors will often 'break the fourth wall' and address the audience, play multiple characters, and use exaggerated or repetitive actions to make their distance and social commentary known.

Gestus is a theatrical technique that helps define the emotion within a character and the context they are in. It is the combination of a gesture and a social meaning into one movement, stance or vocal display. It can be alienating and jar the audience, as it is an unusual and non realistic way of forcing them to see the "bigger picture" of a situation. It is sometimes referred to as the 'social gest', as it is an action that allows the audience to understand something specific about the social circumstances presented on stage.