Epic theatre - Epic theatre and Brecht - GCSE Drama.
The Caucasian Chalk Circle by Bertolt Brecht The Caucasian Chalk Circle by Brecht uses epic theatre to bring forth an idea or meaning for the audience to consider while entertaining the audience. Epic theatre involves the use of alienation techniques to distance the viewer from the story but still concentrate on the overall meaning.
Brecht attended a Chinese opera performance and was introduced to the famous Chinese opera performer Mei LanFang in 1935. However, Brecht was sure to distinguish between Epic and Chinese theatre. He recognized that the Chinese style was not a “transportable piece of technique,” and that Epic theatre sought to historicize and address social and political issues.
Epic theatre (German: episches Theater) is a theatrical movement arising in the early to mid-20th century from the theories and practice of a number of theatre practitioners who responded to the political climate of the time through the creation of a new political theatre.Epic theatre is not meant to refer to the scale or the scope of the work, but rather to the form that it takes.
In Brecht’s essay The Modern Theatre is the Epic Theatre, he stated that his theatre work is based on a “radical separation of the elements of production.” Theories The Alienation Effect - technique which distances the audience from an emotional connection with the play through abrasive reminders of the artificiality of the theatrical performance.
This volume offers a major selection of Bertolt Brecht's groundbreaking critical writing. Here, arranged in chronological order, are essays from 1918 to 1956, in which Brecht explores his definition of the Epic Theatre and his theory of alienation-effects in directing, acting, and writing, and discusses, among other works, The Threepenny Opera, Mahagonny, Mother Courage, Puntila, and Galileo.
Epic theatre, German episches Theater, form of didactic drama presenting a series of loosely connected scenes that avoid illusion and often interrupt the story line to address the audience directly with analysis, argument, or documentation. Epic theatre is now most often associated with the dramatic theory and practice evolved by the playwright-director Bertolt Brecht in Germany from the 1920s.
Epic Theatre is structured in a certain way so that the audience may apply critique to the world around them after leaving the performance. Brecht began his career with small steps, writing theatre criticism, short stories and directing here and there.