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Brecht’s Striking Epic Theatre Techniques – 70 Explanations

ByJustin Cash Updated Genres and Styles, Senior Drama

Introduction to Brecht

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Along with Constantin Stanislavski, Bertolt Brecht was one of the two most influential figures of 20th-century theatre and the most significant practitioner since World War II. Brecht’s theories for the stage, including his well-known epic theatre form, made him a force to be reckoned with.

Although it is well documented Bertolt Brecht had a team of workers around him to ease the load, his creative output was nothing short of prolific. He was a theorist, poet, playwright, and above all a practitioner who painstakingly applied his theories to the works of one of the great theatre companies of the world, the Berliner Ensemble, who demonstrated features of epic theatre in their performances.

Unlike Jerzy Grotowski, Brecht preferred to demonstrate his concepts in performances instead of acting exercises. Unlike Antonin Artaud, Brecht’s ideas were concrete and translatable for actors for generations to come. A staunch Marxist, Brecht’s plays often had a political and social message for those viewing them. Accordingly, his works included songs that drummed home the message of the play, storytellers, narrators, projection, placards, and actors directly addressing the audience.

Epic Theatre Theory

  • Brecht loathed the theatre of realism
  • he likened realistic theatre to the effects of a drug, in that a realistic performance pacified its audience
  • Brecht’s plays were didactic and aimed to teach or instruct their audience
  • Brecht used the word ‘Lehrstück’, meaning ‘learning-play’
  • this was social activist theatre, wanting the spectators to make a change in their own world outside the theatre walls
  • in 1926 Brecht embraced Marxism and his theatre techniques after this point served his Marxist beliefs
  • Brecht’s umbrella title for a range of non-realistic techniques is ‘verfremdungseffekt’
  • verfremdungseffekt, or  V-effekt (German) /  A-effect (English), short for ‘alienation-effect’ has misleadingly translated over the decades as ‘distancing effect’
  • the recent and more accepted translation is ‘to make the familiar, strange’ or ‘estrangement‘
  • the word ‘epic’ was possibly borrowed from the great epic poems of literature (the Iliad, the Odyssey, The Mahabharata, Ramayana) and was coined by German collaborator Erwin Piscator, not Brecht
  • some scholars argue the term was already in use in European experimental theatre by the time Brecht started using the term
  • epic plays employed a large narrative (as opposed to a smaller plot), spanning many locations and time frames
  • Brecht was influenced by German expressionism and had a keen interest in the cabaret scene in Berlin

Dramatic Form

  • Brecht wrote over fifty plays, some of which are considered among the great plays of the 20th century, such as Mother Courage and her Children.
  • Brecht called scenes ‘episodes’, with each scene being relatively self-contained
  • epic plays used non-linear, fractured plots, where the events of a single episode were not necessarily a result of the preceding one
  • this juxtaposition of episodes employing multiple locations and time frames created a montage effect
  • he used his acting troupe at the Berliner Ensemble to perfect his theories on acting and the theatre
  • some of his plays were historical, chronicling the life of a person (Life of Galileo, Saint Joan of the Stockyards)
  • the focus was always on the society being presented in the play, not on individual characters
  • events in plays were sometimes told from the viewpoint of a single storyteller
  • Brecht wrote his plays with no act or scene divisions; these were later added
  • long episodes told the main events of the story and were interspersed with occasional short(er) episodes
  • short(er) episodes normally involved parables, used to detach the audience (marginally) emotionally
  • parable episodes often involved the use of song, a device employed by Brecht to help deliver the (Marxist) message of the play
  • ‘historification’ (more recently known as ‘historicisation’) was a term Brecht used to define the technique of deliberately setting the action of a play in the past in order to draw parallels with contemporary events
  • spectators were asked to view the events of the play with emotional detachment and garner a thinking response, instead
  • Brecht crushed Aristotle’s model of the three unities of time, place and action (where the action takes place over the course of a single day at one location)

The V-effect consists of turning the object of which one is to be made aware … from something ordinary, familiar, immediately accessible, into something peculiar, striking and unexpected.

Bertolt Brecht
Epic Theatre Bertolt Brecht

Acting and Characterisation

  • the actor was never to fully become the character as in the realistic/naturalistic theatre
  • the actor was asked to demonstrate the character at arm’s length with a sense of detachment
  • often characters tended to be somewhat oversimplified and stereotyped
  • yet other characters were sometimes complex
  • historical, real-life characters in some Brecht plays
  • some (but not all) character names were generic eg. the worker, the peasant, the teacher
  • a mix of presentational and representational acting modes

It was the actor’s task to put himself at a distance from the character he was portraying and the situation he was involved with, in order to arouse a thinking, enquiring response in the spectator.

J. L. Styan

Movement and Gesture

  • a mix of realistic and non-realistic movement
  • the movement was at times graceful, but at other times forceful
  • Brecht used the Latin word ‘gestus’ to describe both individual gestures and whole body postures
  • character gestus denoted one’s social attitude and human relationships with others (linked to Marxist principles)
  • some Oriental gestures were used (Brecht’s influence from a Balinese dance performance)
  • groups of characters often positioned on the stage for functional and not aesthetic reasons in an epic theatre ensemble
  • characters were grouped according to their social relationships in the play (Marxist concept)

Space and the Actor-Audience Relationship

  • Brecht’s plays were performed in traditional proscenium arch theatre houses
  • however, the stage curtain was often dispensed with or a half curtain was used instead of a full one
  • Brecht preferred to call the audience ‘spectators’
  • direct address by actors/characters to the audience was a strong and unconventional technique used by performers
  • direct address broke the (invisible) ‘fourth wall’ and crushed traditional realistic/naturalistic conventions
  • the use of narration was a common convention in Brechtian dramas
Brecht Weigel Mother Courage
Brecht and actress-wife Helene Weigel rehearsing Mother Courage and her Children.

Stagecraft and Production

  • the costume was not individually identifiable eg. the farmer’s costume represented ‘a (typical) farmer’
  • the costume was sometimes incomplete and fragmentary eg. the tie and briefcase for the businessman
  • costume often denoted the character’s role or function in society (plus wealth/class)
  • sets were sometimes non-existent or fragmentary (either partial sets or one object representing many of the same)
  • at other times sets were industrial eg. ramps, and treadmills (influence of Meyerhold’s constructivist set design)
  • some makeup and mask use, but non-realistic and ‘theatrical’ eg. grotesque and/or caricatured
  • makeup and costume were used to depict a character’s social role in the play, not that of his/her everyday appearance
  • signs/placards were used to show the audience a range of information
  • screen projection was used to reinforce the play’s theme/s (to garner an intellectual response, not an emotional one)
  • open white light only (as a colour would generate an emotional response from the audience)
  • if the house lights were left on during a performance, open white light also allowed for the spectators and performers to share a single same-lit space
  • lighting instruments in full view of the spectator (no attempt to hide them, but rather remind the audience they were watching a play)
  • music and song were used to express the play’s themes independent of the main spoken text (in parable scenes)
  • music was used to neutralise emotion, rather than intensify it (opposite to a modern-day musical)

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55 Comments

  1. this was really helpful my slime

    Reply
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  3. Excellent- Thank you very much

    Reply

  4. Hi! This is a really informative article, but i was just wondering if you knew a bit about Brecht’s use of tableaux? I’m doing an assignment about Brecht and I’m not sure if he would just stop the action completely or if he would sometimes have one character moving in the scene with the other actors frozen! Thank you for your time!

    Reply

    1. Hi Luca, that’s a very specific question. Sorry, but I don’t have the answer to that one. – Justin

      Reply
  5. Itohan Ott says:

    Thank you Justin, reading this article has been refreshing and it has helped me with my stage presentation

    Reply

  6. Hi, I’m a research student and my subject is about Russian constructivism as an influence on the scenographic design of Bertolt Brecht, I want to quote you but I would also like to know where I get that information from please. Thank you!

    Reply

    1. Cynthia, this article was posted on 17 March, 2014. So, depending on your referencing system used in your research, it would be something like: Cash, J, 2014, Epic Theatre Conventions, date you accessed this page, thedramateacher.com/epic-theatre-conventions. Hope this helps!

      Reply
  7. Kaylee Adair says:

    Can you help me out a bit, I would love to cite your work so I can give credit to your ideas. I’m using some of the things you say as the foundation for one of my papers in university.

    Reply

  8. great stuff, really informative and developed research 🙂

    Reply

  9. Hi guys

    Stumbled apon this site by accident. I’m starting to teach Caucasian Chalk Circle to my class this term.

    I teach at an all boys school in South Africa
    We are having similar debates here over use of alianation. I use enstrange or to make strange to remove or de familiarization never alienation.

    Reply
    1. Claire Davies says:

      Hi,

      I also use ‘to make strange’. However, I find myself explaining the other terms as so many people use alienation and I want them to make the links.

      Reply
  10. Asigbee Akpene Ama says:

    Useful information. Keep it up.!

    Reply
  11. mamun mia says:

    thanks, I am pleased read the acting mathod

    Reply

  12. Hi- what would you say the definition of epic theatre is? And the socio-political context??

    Reply

    1. i have the same question and can’t find the answer anywhere

      Reply
    2. Henry Jackson says:

      “epic plays employed a large narrative (as opposed to a smaller plot), spanning many locations and time frames […] epic plays used non-linear, fractured plots, where the events of a single episode were not necessarily a result of the preceding one” (THIS ARTICLE).

      Reply

  13. This material is very useful as it will be a very handy tool for me as I teach courses in “Introduction to directing” and “Advanced acting”. I look forward to more of such.

    Reply
  14. Elizabeth says:

    How might you take a regular musical in America and make it more interesting by adding Brechtian touches to become more artistic? I already have expresisonism and heightened realism as a goal. (This site is thought provoking…) Thanks for y our info and support.

    Reply

    1. HI Elizabeth
      Have you seen Hamilton. What do you think of it’s techniques?

      Reply
      1. Edward Wheeler says:

        I was unable to afford tickets to see Hamilton. Can you tell me if Hamilton employed Brechtian techniques?

        Reply

        1. Edward, Hamilton has not been to my country yet (Australia), so I can’t help you with this one. Maybe some other readers who have seen Hamilton can advise?

          Reply

  15. This was extremely helpful in aiding my project surrounding Brechtian theatre and practices. Thank you so much for posting this, it means a lot to have so much information at my disposal!

    Reply

  16. neeeeeed help!!!
    what would you say Brechts theatrical influences would be?

    Reply

    2. Hi there

      Brecht was highly influenced by Marxism. This is because he believed in an equal society and during his times Capitalism was at the forefront. He believed that Capitalism could not provide for its people and wanted a more communist approach and that was marxism.

      He was also influenced by Expressionism. However it wasn’t the whole expressionist movement but certain aspects of it listed below. Expressionism:
      – abolished theatre conventions,characterisation, plot and structure
      -Playwright represented thought, feelings and fate
      -There was a poetic dialogue used which was sometimes non-sensical
      – used unconnected scenes instead of a linear plot in the structure (influenced by the playwrights Georg Buchner and Frank Wedekind
      However I must mention that in Brecht’s epic theatre, emotions were removed from expressionism

      Erwin Piscator influenced Brecht in his semi-revolutionary theatre after world war one. He used themes that were against the government back then and turned them into skits and made songs, painted and drew posters. His goal was to re-educate and uplift the lower class/oppressed class. He used puppets, projections and screens and believe that art could not just be for art’s sake but should awaken social consciousness.

      Elizabethan theatre practises
      – a bare stage with the audience around it
      -A narrator and entertainment
      – personal issues and political being unravelled with changing scenes

      Oriental theatre practises
      – Verfremdung from chinese acting style
      -Dispassionate Noh Plays
      – revolving stage of Kabuki theatre from the Japanese

      I hope that helps 🙂

      Reply
  17. Auwal M Bashir says:

    I am student of theatre and performing Arts and I am happy for meet you because I have learnt a lots and I know brecht more better now. thank you sir

    Reply

  18. What techniques could i teach a class to make them get into brecht more ?

    Reply

    1. Bella, it sometimes depends on the age of the students, whether they have had some introduction to Brecht already, and how academic the group in question is? Generally, I have found students enjoy using placards/signs, narration, song with a message. Other students get into Brecht and Epic Theatre by using conventions such as speaking stage directions out loud (though in reality, Brecht’s actors probably only did this as a rehearsal technique), and swapping characters mid-scene. More sophisticated and older students get in to Brecht’s political and social background (Marxist beliefs) and how this affected his theatre, by looking at his use of gestus. Other students enjoy using projection in their practical studies of Brecht. I have found over the years one just has to tailor it to your students at the time.

      Reply

  20. I’m currently studying for my mock exams and this is a brilliant resource thank you so much!!!1

    Reply
  21. Elizabeth Stemann says:

    Hi, thank you for the information. Is doubling (an actor plays 2 characters) a Brechtian technique? I doubt it but somebody told me it was so.Thank you.

    Reply

    1. Elizabeth, I teach this to my students as an epic theatre technique. – Justin

      Reply
      1. Elizabeth Stemann says:

        Thank you very much for your reply. There is any other place where you talk about it OR any other sources that I can check? thank you!

        Reply
  22. Migel silas says:

    Wow tanks alot for em write ups..i want to knw did he(Brecht) Talked about anything on using of multimedia on stage?pls i need to knw in detail or if u can refrence me to any work fine.tanks

    Reply

    1. Migel, Brecht collaborated with fellow German theatre director Erwin Piscator on a well-known production of a work entitled The Good Soldier Schweik (1928) in which film projection was used on stage. It is believed that Brecht, in collaboration with Piscator, were two of the first directors to successfully use projection in the theatre. Whether this included sound as well, and therefore closer to “multimedia”, I do not know for sure. I believe the production used projection as scenery, cartoon film and real film (John Willett – scholar and author of books on Brecht). This information is a little tricky to find. Sorry my reply was late, but if still relevant I recommend searching books such as Brecht in Context, Brecht on Theatre, Brecht on Performance, Bertolt Brecht (Mumford) etc for more details, or searching .edu websites for web information through Google, plus utilising university libraries with academic resources on Brecht.

      Reply

  23. its more helpful to me…thanks..

    Reply

  24. A great resource that has helped me develop throughout the entire year. From my Solo performance to developing descriptive language for my Performance analysis, this resource has helped a lot.

    Thanks!

    Reply

      1. Hi Justin what do you mean used to emotionally detach the audience (marginally)?

        Reply

        1. Hi Kelly,

          Shorter episodes (scenes) in some of Brecht’s plays contained parables, often communicated to the spectator (audience) through the use of song. The intention was to distance/detach the spectator emotionally by driving home the intellectual message of the play (often a Marxist one) in these scenes. ‘Marginal’ detachment is probably more my own opinion as to the level of effect on the spectator. – Justin

          Reply

  25. A fantastic resource, thank you for developing these pages. Expect a lot of hits from South Australia as I will be sharing this with my students as it is so clear and accessible.

    Reply
  26. Brooke Obama says:

    Fanks for dis, halp mi on mi asignement a lot. fanks agan

    Reply
  27. morris Joshua says:

    What is it called when a performance does a breif overview of the play at the start…ie…in a short movment piece.. and therefore leaves the audience to then watch how it all took place, knowing already what took place? Does the techniqu have a name?

    Reply

    1. I am not sure, but if you find out, please let me know 🙂

      Reply

  28. We should stop writing “alienation techniques” once for all. This is an outright wrong translation of Brecht’s term “Verfremdung”. “Verfremdung” does NOT have anything to do with “Entfremdung” (alienation). Not in the slightest. “Defamliarization” is the correct term. “Entfremdung” is a Marxist term that has nothing to do with theatre although one might be tempted to confuse these things because Brecht was a Marxist.

    Reply
  29. Zanele Dubez says:

    Well ariculated.Thank You so much guys!Kindly do the isms for me please.

    Thank You
    Zanele

    Reply