Epic Theatres :: essays research papers

Epic Theatres"Epic Theatre turns the looker into an observer, but arouses his capacity foraction, forces him to take decisions...the spectator stands outside, studies."(Bertolt Brecht. Brecht on Theatre. New York pile & Yang, 1964. p37)The concept of large theatre was brought to life by German die hardwright, BertoltBrecht. This direction of theatre was inspired by Brechts Marxist politicalbeliefs. It was passably of a political platform for his ideologies. Epictheatre is the assimilation of schooling through entertainment and is theantithesis of Stanislavskys realness and also Expressionism. Brecht believedthat, unlike epic theatre, Expressionism and Realism were incapable of exposinghuman nature and so had no educational value. He conjectured that his form oftheatre was capable of provoking a change in society. Brechts intention wasto encourage the audience to ponder, with critical detachment, the moraldilemmas presented before them.In order to analyse and evaluat e the action occurring on stage, Brecht believedthat the audience must(prenominal) not allow itself to become emotionally involved in the tosh. kinda they should, through a series of anti-illusive devices, feelalienated from it. The effect of this confer exclusion makes it difficultfor the audience to empathise with the characters and their predicament. Thus,they could study the plays social or political message and not the actualevents being performed on stage. This adjoin is called Verfremdungseffekt, orthe alienation effect, where instead of identifying with the characters, theaudience is reminded that they are watching just a portrayal of reality.Several well-known Brechtian plays include Drums in the Night, Edward 2, The twopenny-halfpenny Opera, Rise and Fall of the Town of Mahoganny, The Life of Galileo,The Good Person of Szechwan, Triple-A ploughed Under, One-Third of a Nation,Mother Courage and her children and the albumen Chalk Circle.A play whose dramatic structure and didactic purposes epitomises epic theatre isThe Caucasian Chalk Circle (CCC). The prologue of this play transpires in aCaucasian colony of the Soviet Union, where the wad of this village arebeing presented a play called The Chalk Circle. This play is narrated by a Singer and embarks on the story of a servant girl, Grusha, who rescues thegovernors son when their city falls below siege. The son, Michael, has beenleft behind, without so much as a backward glance, by his fleeing mother.Grusha escapes, with Michael in her arms, to the mountains where they live forover a year. Along this journey, countless places and people are encountered,a number that would only occur in epic theatre.In truly epic fashion, the play then regresses to the beginning of the story and