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Bertolt Brecht2012
Bertolt Brecht2012
• Also actors may step out of character and narrate their own situation,
speaking directly to the audience (from the Good Soul of Szechuan)
– Shu Fu (addresses the audience) What do you think of me, ladies and
gentlemen? Could such an esteemed man do more? Be more unselfish? More
understanding? More forward looking?
Placards
• Placards are cards with messages to the
audience written on them. Often with
statistics or locations, or to replace a prop
(eg a card saying briefcase instead of an
actual briefcase.)
Placards were also often used in
the form of projections- most
modern Epic plays employ
projection of video to draw a
modern parallel from Brecht’s
texts.
Discordant music
• This can be two things- either dissonance (notes that do not harmonise) or
that the tone of the song does not suit the atmosphere of the scene.
• Mac The Knife, is a fairly well known crooner number- upbeat and sang with
a smile to a cheering audience.
• But originally it is from Three Penny Opera and is about MacHeath- who in
the song murders 3 men, rapes 6 women, and hovers in the background. In
fact the actor comes out of character and sings the song about Macheath
• Brecht often used music for narration and with direct address, ensemble
presenting tableaux, third person narration in order to achieve the
Verfremdungseffeckt.
• Also, his actors were often not good singers so the songs, even if only
meant to be discordant in atmosphere, were usually discordant in musical
tone as well.
Historification
• Is an allegorical technique used by Brecht to criticise
current political issues by setting his plays in the past
and different countries and using these events as
allegory-
• Epic plays have episodes, where the gap between scenes is often
years and characters do not necessarily develop from one scene to
the next.