4th November 2014

In today's lesson we got introduced to the idea of political theatre, the difference it poses to naturalism & Brecht as a practitioner. Political theatre is a piece that has a certain issue at the heart which leads & drives the piece forward as the leading cause for its creation. These can be a wide variety of topics ranging from country to country or specific to a certain topic prevalent at the time e.g. the Ebola outbreak & government intervention or lack of. This is then discussed through the form of 'epic theatre' which specifically is different from the naturalistic theatre we were offered before in 'dramatic theatre'.

  
Within the lesson we looked at the individual differences within these states, an example being the difference between 'plot' & 'narrative'. A plot is something in which the character's operate inside of in order to express a certain story they are experiencing. Narrative is outside of this as it abandons the need for character satisfaction in place of a larger, overarching issue within the piece. These definitive differences & choices make the political elements within a piece perfectly suited to a Brechtian style. Acknowledgment that within the space the actors are trying to achieve an image within gestation to show an image greater than the actors within the space. This is the need to show the world outside of the piece, within it. Reflecting the real political themes beyond the actors inside the space through these grand images at an 'epic' scale of imagination. We also got offered the question of 'what makes a pacifist ready to kill?' Brining to light the hefty question of when action is drawn upon in an ultimately needed medium. Making the piece reach a point where the pacifist has to kill draws the message to the highest point & shows the dynamic needed to make the actors effective with the messages they hope to portray.

We also had to learn about the 'Verfremdungseffekt effect' which draws the actors away from being a character & only a courier for the political themes. To establish this need for the audience, of the distance between actor & action Brecht utilises a number of techniques. These include; a narrator, actors stepping out of character to narrate the piece, actors speaking in 3rd person & singing narration. All to break down the forth wall for the audience, illustrate that the actors are aware of the situation & that it is a performance for the audience. Removing any characterisation in place of the greater theme at work within the piece, of the political message.   

We also had to understand situations from multiple perspectives to reach a greater meaning behind the piece by running scenes from multiple different angles. This involved duel images such as 'hero's of war' to 'the loss of war' showing the yin & yang of a subject matter due to perspective. Brecht wants to play with these elements to an extreme, making the audience engaged with their own political leanings due to the images presented by the actors in the space. We also broke into groups & had to devise two scenes with the same through line of topic. For our group it was the discovery of our doctor murdering a person. In the first scene, we showed outrage & fear before we offered some justification behind the doctor's murder, nullifying the issue. In the second playing we were less concerned about the murder & more involved around the fame that came with it. Both were political statements on different cultures within Britain with the audience needing to engage whether they agreed or disagreed with the character's reactions within the given circumstance. It was interesting to play with perception in such an overt & experimental way that it offered a style of theatre I had never experienced before. I want to continue to learn & develop techniques offered by Brecht & change my acting style by his offerings.