Brecht’s Epic Theatre Conventions (Pt.2)

Part 2 of Brecht’s Epic Theatre conventions involves an overview of some of his techniques. In future posts, I will go into more depth with certain conventions, but for this post, we will look at a shopping list of Epic Theatre conventions my Year 11 Drama students summarised in class this morning. I trust some readers of The Drama Teacher will find this list useful.

• narration
• direct address to the audience
• placards and signs
• projection
• spoiling dramatic tension in advance of episodes (scenes)
• disjointed time sequences – flashbacks and flash forwards – large jumps in time between episodes (scenes)
• historification – setting events in another place and/or time in order to distance the emotional impact, yet enhance the intellectual impact for the spectator (audience)
• fragmentary costumes – single items of clothing representing the entire costume
• fragmentary props – single objects representing a larger picture (or setting)
• song – like parables in the Bible, songs are used to communicate the message or themes of the drama
• demonstration of role – actors are encouraged not to fully become the role, but rather to ‘demonstrate’ the role at arm’s length, with a sense of detachment
• multiple roles – actors commonly perform more than one character in a drama
• costume changes in full view of the spectator (audience)
• lighting equipment in full view of the spectator (audience)
• open white lighting – due to its emotional impact, coloured light on stage is eliminated – instead, the stage is flooded with white light
• “verfremdungseffekt“ – a complex term translated differently by scholars from German , involves the use of many of the above conventions, with the ultimate aim of distancing the audience emotionally and increasing their intellectual response to the drama.

Sources:
Crawford J, Acting in Person and in Style
Styan J, Modern Drama in Theory and Practice 3: Expressionism and Epic Theatre
Dobson W; Neelands J, Theatre Directions
Burton B, Living Drama
Sacks G; Thomson P, The Cambridge Companion to Brecht
Mumford M, Bertolt Brecht (Routledge Performance Practitioners)
Cooper S; Mackey S, Theatre Studies: An Approach for Advanced Level