2. Bertolt Brecht
• 1898-1956
• Brecht was a German playwright, poet and
director as well as theatre practitioner.
• From his late 20’s Brecht remained a life-
long committed Marxist.
• Brecht is the creator of Epic Theatre.
3. Epic Theatre
• Brecht was convinced that theatre must
aim to bring about social and political
change.
• Epic Theatre aims to force the audience to
critically think and make judgements on
what they are seeing.
• It tries to show how things in society
could be different if attitudes could be
changed.
“Art is not a mirror held up to reality, but a
hammer with which to shape it.” -Brecht
4. The Form of Epic Theatre
• Emphasis is placed on the importance of a
social or political message before the
exploration of a character.
• A reaction again Naturalism, Epic Theatre
breaks through the ‘fourth wall’ of the
stage.
• Brecht believed Theatre’s greatest
function was to educate.
5. The Form of Epic Theatre
• Epic Theatre illuminates situations in the past to
teach about the present.
• Epic Theatre uses a variety of effects and
techniques to constantly remind the audience
that what they are watching is only a
representation of reality, not reality itself. These
techniques are called the Verfremdungseffekt
(the distancing effect or making something
strange).
6. Examples of the
Verfremdungseffekt
• Songs used as commentary on action,
• The use of captions/placards,
• Narrators,
• An episodic format,
• Masks,
• Gestus,
• Juxtapositioning,
• Props/set,
• Lighting
