United World College in Mostar

Španski Trg 1, 88000 Mostar

Bosnia and Herzegovina

SOLO THEATER PIECE

FASCISM IS(N’T) DEAD:
The Illusion of Inclusion
Epic theatre by Bertolt Brecht
IB THEATRE, HIGHER LEVEL

Student: Lazar Lukač Mentor: Damir Čobo

lazarlukac2004@gmail.com damir.cobo@uwcmostar.ba

April 2023
 Table of Contents:

Theater in Context
1. About Bertolt Brecht……..…………………………………………3
2. Context………………………………………………………………3
2.1. Cultural, Historical and Political Context…………………………….3
2.2. Selected aspect: Didacticism……………...……….…………………4
2.3. Theoretical context………..………;…..……….……………………...4

Theater in Processes
3. Initial explorations of selected aspects and peer feedback…....5
4. Intentions and message……...……………………………………6
4.1. Target audience……………………………………………………..7
5. Development of the plot…………….………………………….….8
6. Incorporating techniques of Epic Theatre into my piece….…....8
6.1. Placards………………….…………………………………………...8
6.2. Song/music…………………………...……………………………..10
6.3. Historification……….………………...…………………………..…10
7. Final staging………………………….……………………………10
7.1. Set…………………………………………………………………….10
7.2. Lighting……………………………………………………………….12

Evolution and reflection

8. Evaluation of the final piece……………………………………..13
9. Reflection on the process…………………………………….….14

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1. About Bertolt Brecht:

Bertolt Brecht was a German poet, playwright, and theatre director. He initially studied
medicine and philosophy but he became interested in theatre in 1920s. Brecht believed
that theatre shouldn’t simply entertain audiences, but should also educate and inspire
them to think critically about the world around them. In his book “The Modern Theatre is
the Epic Theatre” he argued that theatre should expose underlying power structures of
society (Brecht, 1930).

Some of Brecht’s most famous works include Mother Courage and Her Children and
The Caucasian Chalk Circle. While those plays had a significant impact on theatre
evolution, the focus of this portfolio will rather be on Brecht as a theatre theorist.

Brecht died in 1956 in East Berlin. His legacy lives on in the many playwrights and
directors who have been influenced by his work, such as Peter Brook and Augusto
Boal. Epic theatre is often regarded as one of the starting points of postdramatic
theatre, as described in "Postdramatic Theatre" (Lehmann, 1999).

2. Context:

This section will aim to introduce various aspects of Epic theatre through examining
several contexts which influenced development of them.

2.1. Cultural, Historical and Political Context:

Brecht lived and worked in the Weimar Republic, German state established after WW1.
It was a period of political upheaval, marked by economic instability, political violence,
and social unrest, followed by devasting WW2.

The interwar period saw the rise of fascist and authoritarian regimes across Europe,
including Nazi Germany. These regimes sought to suppress political dissent and control
the arts, by imprisoning artists and burning their works. At the same time, Europe has
experienced the emergence of socialism and Marxism as opposing political forces.

Brecht was particularly influenced by ideas of Karl Marx, making him targeted by the
Nazi party and forcing him into exile in 1933. Left-wing standpoints, therefore, became
central to the Epic Theatre he developed. Brecht shared Marx's critique of capitalism
and was deeply concerned about the inequalities it produced, as he revealed in “The

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Threepenny Novel” in 1939. His plays therefore often featured working-class
characters (which wasn’t prominent during that time, as theatre mostly portrayed higher
class) and addressed issues such as poverty, exploitation, and social injustice, which
brings us to another technique of Epic theatre, Representation of daily life, by
emphasising the daily struggles of characters, particularly in the context of social class,
as per Marx. Brecht believed that theatre shouldn’t be means of escaping from the
world, but a way of engaging with it more deeply.

Another aspect of Marx's philosophy that influenced Brecht was his emphasis on
dialectics, particularly emphasized in his book "A Short Organum for the Theatre".
Marx believed that history was shaped by the conflict between opposing forces, and that
change occurred through the resolution of these contradictions. Brecht used dialectics
by introducing contradictory characters(Rouse, 1984).

2.2. Selected aspect: Didacticism:

The aspect of Epic theatre that I choose for this performance is Didacticism(using
theatre as a way to convey messages about features of society, politics or economy),
which is heavily influenced by the political context of Brecht's work. While Didactic
theatre originated in Antics and was heavily used in medieval times, Didacticticism as
part of Epic theatre is underpinned by Marxist views, not seeing theatre as a moralistic
or didactic medium but as tool for raising consciousness, mobilizing masses, and
ultimately transforming society, as testified in Brecht’s "The Messingkauf Dialogues" and
"The Threepenny Lawsuit".

Brecht’s Didacticicism, therefore, uses Epic theatre techniques to send the audience a
message which would help them identify points where society fails morally, aiming to
leave them with eagerness to change those aspects of society.
The most prominent themes of Brech’t didacticism were related to poverty, oppression
and war. Didacticicism has been challenged by some prominent thinkers, such as in
"Theater and Its Double" by Antonin Artaud, who argued that emotional response of the
audience is more important than their intellectual engagement.

2.3. Theoretical context:

The dominant theatrical form at the start of the 20th century was realism, which aimed
to create a faithful representation of higher-class characters on stage. Brecht saw this
as a form of bourgeois entertainment that reinforced the status quo and encouraged
audiences to passively accept reality.

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 Epic theatre aimed to break the illusion of realism using techniques such as split-role,
montage, and the use of music to disrupt the audience's emotional engagement with
the play and encourage them to think critically about issues presented.

He found his departure points in two prominent theatrical movements of that time:

a) Symbolism, which used metaphor and allegory to convey deeper

meanings and spiritual truths.
b) Expressionism, aimed to convey the inner emotions and psychological
states of characters through exaggerated performances.

Furthermore, Brecht was influenced by Defamiliarization by Viktor Shklovsky, a theory

arguing that art should strive to make the familiar strange in order to challenge
assumptions Brecht has grounded this in epic theatre in Verfremdungseffekt
(alienation effect) - a sense of detachment between the audience and the action on
stage, as described in "Understanding Brecht" (Benjamin, 1931). By using various
techniques such as breaking the fourth wall and creating abrupt shifts in tone or style,
Brecht aimed to prevent audiences from becoming too emotionally invested in
characters and stories. Instead, he wanted them to constantly question and analyze
what they were seeing. He argued that the audience shouldn’t be surprised in any way,
but that their understanding of the action/relations should be deepened. He, therefore,
developed the following key techniques of Epic theatre:

1. Use of Plackards and Projections - signs, banners or other types of written

information that help the audience understand the action. They can identify
characters, locations, emotions, relationships, or what will happen in the future;
2. Characters speaking stage directions - instead of fully applying stage
directions, characters can say them out loud, sparking audience's understanding
of what does scene represent;
3. Narration - explaining the plot by narrator or chorus;
4. Epic structure - scenes often connected thematically rather than through a
linear plot.
5. Historification - including historical and real-world documents into play.

3. Initial explorations of selected aspects and peer feedback:

While practically exploring Didactism, I had several approaches, which I included in my

first performance for my theatre class:

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 1.) My performance was a set of confessions. This presented a problem: I didn’t
have a storyline: my performance simply portrayed characters struggling in
society. The impact on my peers from the class wasn’t what I wanted: they felt as
if I only tried to portray the lives of the marginalized, rather than my initial goal of
critiquing capitalism. To fully immerse Didactism in my play, I will first need to
have crystal clear intention and message and then tailor my plot accordingly. I will
also try to include characters who implement the system and emphasize
functionalistic nature of our society.

2.) I used a technique called Cop in the Head combined with Brecht’s
contradictory character. I did it by using voice recordings in my play. So, when
a character would say something, there would be his “cop”, critiquing voice inside
him played as a voice recording. Unfortunately, nobody in the class realized what
I was trying to convey, and it was extremely difficult to perform. In spite of the
time I spent creating those voice recordings, I realized that this doesn’t fit in my
performance.

3.) I used projections instead of plackards: However, my peers didn’t get meaning
of them, due to technical obstacles I didn’t predict: waviness of curtains on the
stage prevented them from being readable to my peers. I have therefore decided
to alternate them with “traditional” placards.

4. Intentions and message:

My main intention is to critique neoliberal capitalism, as applied today in the systems of

First World countries, due to its perpetuating injustice, inequality, and inhumanity. I want
to expose the flawed systems that prioritize profit over human life. The main
components of its structure I want to critique are:

1. Strict immigration laws, border enforcement and nationality-based

discrimination: Living on the edge of “Western world” my whole life, I witnessed
how cruel our structure is to those seeking asylum. This becomes particularly
important in 2023, given the UK’s new immigration law which permits authorities
to “swiftly remove” refugees crossing the Chanel, regardless if they are in urgent
need of protection/they are children.

2. Privatization and commodification of well-being; As per Marx, the worst

possible commodification is the one regarding human’s physiological needs.
Given neoliberal free market rules, some countries have already erased

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 regulations of prices of medications, resulting in prices of simple drugs
skyrocketing.

3. Governmental support to organized religious institutions;

While our(First World governments) argue they don’t have enough money to
accommodate refugees, they still give billions in support to the Church and
affiliated organizations, which, as per Marx, only reinforce the oppression of
marginalized in society.

While I want to show how those components of the system destroy the lives of
individuals, I don’t want my audience to accuse characters implementing the rules of the
system, such as policemen, in my play. Instead, I want to use a more alienating,
approach that would distance the audience’s negative emotions from those
individuals, by encouraging them to view the events of the play as part of a larger
political context. In summary, while I want my audience to feel empathy for individual
victims of oppression, I also want them to remember that the neoliberal capitalist
structure is the one enforcing this oppression. Ultimately, this would disrupt their
passive acceptance of the status quo and encourage them to become active in
fighting against such system, creating a desire for revolution in my audience.

4.1. Target audience:

Target audience for my performance will be consisting of:

1. Working class citizens of my city: one of main purposes of Brecht's theatre is

reaching those traditionally excluded from the cultural mainstream, working class,
and empowering them through it.
2. My peers/classmates: they will be able to question their own views and maybe
bring some perspectives from my piece to their future journeys.

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 Figures 1-2: Posters I created to advertise my performance: left in my school, and right
in a working-class neighborhood1, featuring motive from famous mural in Las Vegas;

5. Development of the plot:

I realized that the most efficient way to critique the aspects of our system I listed is to
structure my play into scenes that focus on each one of them. Therefore, my play will
consist of following scenes:

1. Short introduction of the victim of neocolonialism, making it crystal clear why

even refugees even need to migrate;
2. Scene featuring a refugee at the border;
3. Scene showcasing the commodification of hospital services;
4. Scene representing relationship between Goverment, Churh and society;

6. Incorporating techniques of Epic Theatre into my piece:

6.1. Placards:

Brecht often used placards in his productions to provide contextual information and
highlight important ideas, which were typically placed on the stage or carried by actors.
For example, in play "The Good Person of Szechwan," Brecht used a series of placards

1
My name, name and logo of my school have been erased due to IB restrictions.

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to introduce the characters and set. The placards provided information about the
characters' names, occupations, and relationships. As a result, Brecht established the
context of the play quickly and efficiently, without relying on long exposition.
In my play, placards will establish scene’s setting, as well as further context. For
example, scene 4 placard will say “CHURH”, but will also include symbols of
Christianity, Islam and Judaism, to showcase that it's not a Church as a building but
Church as a broader religious organisation, relevant to all major religions. A final
placard will show the summarized message of the play, highlighting the Marxist
critique of our society.

Figures 3-5: Development of plackards;

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6.2. Song/music:

Brecht believed that music could emphasize social and political aspects of play, rather
than just providing entertainment/emotional appeal. He believed that music could help
create a contrast between the emotional response of the audience and the intellectual
response that he hoped to achieve. For example, in play "The Threepenny Opera,"
Brecht used the song, "Mack the Knife," a catchy tune that contrasts with the violent and
criminal behaviour of the character it describes. As a result, he highlighted the ways
society often romanticizes criminal behavior, while simultaneously pointing out its
negative consequences.

During my exploration, I knew I want to use a song that satirizes play's plot in global
context - I want to make it crystal clear to my audience that the characters of my play
are just a part of a broader system - a system that, as per Marx, we all support by not
fighting against it. I wrote a song sung by character of borderguard, in transitions of
scenes 2-3. However, my class didn’t receive it well. They said the song was too long
and too glamorous, almost as if I was trying to promote capitalism. I have therefore
rewritten it, and instead of “I’ve got a Dream” used “Gansgta Paradise” as a backing
track for it, and moved it to the end of my performance.

6.3. Historification/documentarism:

One of the key techniques of epic theatre, documentarism, will play significant role in
my piece. Brecht used to include historical documents, news and other documentary
materials in his plays in order to show demonstrate relevance of the plot to real-world
events. (Willett, 1959) I decided to go with the same approach, by projecting news
during my first two scenes: a 1996 interview with Madeleine Albright about US sanctions
and more recent reports about brutality of Croatian borderguards. The first one will
show how much authorities don’t care about effects of their actions while the second
one will present refugees’ injuries as consequences of those actions.

7. Final staging:

7.1. Set:

Since the beginning of my research of Epic theatre, I was drawn by Brecht’s idea of
breaking down the traditional barrier between the stage and the audience, the barrier
between the “real and unreal” worlds. As Brecht argued, theatre is best when it is

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immersive and interactive, rather than passive. Therefore, as a set designer, I have
decided to set some scenes out of the stage, closer to the audience. This has allowed
me to use the curtain as a “border” to the Western world. One of the main critiques my
play addresses is the one addressing discrimination caused by borders - and the border
between the stage and the audience is will be the perfect metaphor for that. Also, stage
being raised from the floor will show how we as Westerners, unfortunately, see
ourselves: better than the rest of the world, looking upon them from a raised place.

Diagram 1: Set design

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 Diagram 2: Run-through of stage movements I will do during performance.

7.2. Lighting and projections:

The next task I had was regarding the lighting and projections. As some scenes were
taking place out of the range of the standard lighting of our stage, I had to adjust their
positioning. So one of the front lights of the stage now actually had to be adjusted
down(“downlighting”). In addition, for the first scene, I will be using a floor lamp, which
will create sense of intimacy with the audience: as if character is having a casual
conversation with them.

Figure6: Me positioning and focusing the stage lights;

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 Diagram 3: lighting assembly;

As scene transitions when projections of videos are during the first scenes, now, the
projections will be on the front curtain, rather than on the back ones. This will also be
better as no placards will therefore interfere with the projections.

8. Evaluation of the final piece through the lens of audience

impact:

After the session, I had a talkback session as well as individual interviews with some
members of the audience. One of the most interesting perspectives was ”I didn’t know
that things as simple as carton can be so powerful in the performance - my attention
was brought to action, not on details”2, which suggested that I managed to accomplish
aims of technique. One member stated: ”I didn’t know these thing are happening, and I
wouldn’t be able to believe in them. Including real videos of news was slap in my face.”3
This particularly testifeid that I managed to apply documentarism as well.

When it comes to the message of the play, most of them have received it well, with bit of
oscillations: while some thought I wanted to promote anarchism, others got my point just
right:” World seems perfect because we live in a bubble - this play showed how we all
2
Interview conducted with Megh, 14.4.2023.
3
Feedback from the panel, 14.4.2023.

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indirectly torture endangered people, and I will remember it whenever I say that life is
perfect”4. One audience member said: “But this doesn’t give a solution. It is only
critiquing.5” However, I strongly believe neither me nor Brecht wanted to serve solution
on the plate: we wanted to engage the audience and make them active developers of it.
Finally, one observer commented: “I will use this play as my reminder of how grateful
should I be for everything I have. Even though I ain’t rich, I am rich not to have problems
of citizenship”,6 which means I managed to raise awareness about these problems. I
feel proud, because it really seems I fulfilled my very first intention - to show that theatre
is much more meaningful than just entertainment.

9. Reflection on the process:

In the table below, I highlighted key skills I acquired and how are they going to help me
in future theatrical journeys:

Components of my performance How satisfied I am with them

Technical execution I am extremely proud of all the

technical sophistications I incorporated
into the performance - especially in terms
of how did the audience receive them.
One thing to keep in mind is the fact that
HDMI cable of projector stopped working
minutes before - so I had to panicly run to
get another one. If I was about to create a
performance again, I would create plan
for such a situation and how to perform
my piece if the projector fails.

Border and refugee scene While I am very proud of how I

performed these scenes, I think I could
further perfectionize scene of the border
guard in terms of body language, I could
emphasize his dominance in the situation.

Hospital scene My intentions to create plastic, a bit

exaggerated character that only wants to
sell product was fully met.

4
Feedback from the panel, 14.4.2023.
5
Interview conducted with Luka, 14.4.2023.
6
Interview conducted with Anes, 14.4.2023.

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Church scene Audience completely received my
intended message about organized
religion, and I didn’t fail into the trap of
representing only one religion. However, I
believe my acting was a bit hurried up
during this scene.

Song scene The point, message and purpose of the

song were fully met - it moved my
audience into an intellectual discussion
rather than entertainment. This was my
first time singing ever, so I am happy
with it, although I adjourned once.
Table 1: Reflection;

Skills I acquired How will they benefit me in future

Technical design: adjusting lighting,
instrumentalizing music, editing
projections
This was the most useful skill I acquired,
as I will need it in every play I set in the
future; I still don’t have superior
knowledge about it, but I do know how to
search for information and use it - which
will be enough for future;

Brech-specific techniques: placards, These techniques will be very useful as I

historification, music will know how to appropriately use them
as a theatre director.

Acting While the focus of my piece wasn’t fully

on acting, it has definitely improved
through this, especially in context of quick
switches among characters.

Songwriting, music editing, singing While I may not be talented at singing, I

now know basics of music metre, as I had
to explore them for adopting my song to
existing tune. I will definitely use this in
future plays.
Table 2: Skills;

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