Bertolt Brecht 101

Bertolt Brecht (1898–1956), or Eugen Bertolt Friedrich Brecht, occupies a crucial space in the world of literature. He was a German theatre practitioner.

In the dark times
Will there also be singing?
Yes, there will be singing.
About the dark times.
– Bertolt Brecht, The Svenborg Poems

 

Brecht wrote plays, produced them and he was as well an acclaimed poet. 

 

Brecht blended music and drama and employed the techniques of theatrical alienation (or verfremdungseffekt); the latter which he had polished with the revolutionary concept of epic theatre. 

 

Influenced by Marxism and the Chinese theatre, he endorsed that alienation is necessary before the desire for change can arise. 

 

Pragmatically, ‘a play should not cause the spectator to identify emotionally with the characters or action before them, but should instead provoke rational self-reflection and a critical view of the action on the stage’ (Source: Bertolt Brecht - Theory and Practice of Theatre). 

 

This modernist German playwright has been appealing to me for his straightforward views on the relationship between the personal and the political.

Read on this blog:

• Fair Play: A few distinguished schools of thought and approaches in theatre
• Theatre Report: A translation of Yumlembam Ibomcha’s Manipuri poem, Theatre-gi Report 
• Haiku from Theatre of the Absurd