Epic Theatres :: essays research papers

Epic Theatres"Epic Theatre turns the spectator into an observer, but arouses his capacity foraction, forces him to meditate decisions...the spectator stands outside, studies."(Bertolt Brecht. Brecht on Theatre. New YorkHill & Yang, 1964. p37)The concept of larger-than-life poem theatre was brought to life by German track downwright, BertoltBrecht. This direction of theatre was exalt by Brechts Marxist politicalbeliefs. It was somewhat of a political plan for his ideologies. Epictheatre is the assimilation of education through entertainment and is theantithesis of Stanislavskys world and also Expressionism. Brecht believedthat, unlike epic theatre, Expressionism and Realism were in commensurate of exposinghuman record 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 hearing to ponder, with critical detachment, the moraldilemmas presented before them.In order to analyse and adjudicate the action occurring on stage, Brecht believedthat the audience must non allow itself to mother emotionally involved in thestory. Rather they should, through a serial publication of anti-illusive devices, feelalienated from it. The effect of this deliberate exclusion makes it difficultfor the audience to empathise with the characters and their predicament. Thus,they could study the lends social or political message and not the actualevents being performed on stage. This process is called Verfremdungseffekt, orthe alienation effect, where sort of of identifying with the characters, theaudience is reminded that they are watching only a portrayal of reality. some(prenominal) well-known Brechtian plays include Drums in the Night, Edward 2, TheThreepenny Opera, Rise and Fall of the townsfolk of Mahoganny, The Life of Galileo,The Good Person of Szechwan, Triple-A Plowed Under, One-Third of a Nation, scram Courage and her children and the Caucasian Chalk Ci rcle.A play whose dramatic structure and didactic purposes epitomises epic theatre isThe Caucasian Chalk Circle (CCC). The prologue of this play transpires in aCaucasian hamlet of the Soviet Union, where the people 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 consideration girl, Grusha, who rescues theg all overnors son when their city falls under siege. The son, Michael, has beenleft behind, without so more than 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 second that would only occur in epic theatre.In truly epic fashion, the play then regresses to the beginning of the story and