"Ready Brecht"
Play title - 'Fear and Misery of the Third Reich'
In this assignment I will be discussing Brecht's background political issues in this period and rehearsals.
Bertolt Brecht ( 1898-1956 ) was a German playwright and poet . He wrote political poetry and had a keen interest in socialism and it's theories, he was extremely interested in Karl Marx's theory of Socialism which involved social justice, This theory was about the rich and poor, who had money and who didn't, and how this made people gain power and who had control of society. I personally think Brecht wanted to do something about this theory and make it more 'seen' by putting it in his plays; showing the audience bluntly what was going on in the real world, through basic scenes with messages.
Brecht's used 'Epic Theatre'. Epic theatre is a reaction against popular forms of theatre in this time period mainly the naturalistic, it was a theatrical movement in the early to mid-20th century, even though Epic theatre had been around years before, Brecht brought this back to life in shows. He completely went off of Stanislavski's wave length of being naturalistic and playing 'melodrama'. Brecht was against Stanislavski's methodology and wanted 'Realism' bringing social and political focus in his plays rather than emotionally connecting with the audience he wanted to "Hit the nail on the head".
One of his famous techniques were "Verfremdungseffekt" or in other words "Alienation Effect" this technique was to make the audience feel not connected in the action of the play, so they do not become connected to what was going on in the scene or become overly attached to the character. he would put bright lights in the theatre (not just the stage), also having actors play multiple characters. Having actors also rearrange the set in full view of the audience and "breaking the fourth wall" by speaking to the audience are all ways he used to achieve the Alienation Effect.
Another technique would be 'Gestus'
Gestus is an acting technique developed by the German theatre practitioner Bertolt Brecht. It carries the sense of a combination of physical gestures and "gist" or attitude. It is a means by which "an attitude or single aspect of an attitude" is revealed, insofar as it is "expressible in words or actions.
http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gestus
In other words the technique Gestus means the characters attitude is revealed straight away through actions or words rather than subliminally/ making the audience think about what they're really saying; it is a 'blunt' approach a theme that is continuously used through Berchts plays. Again completely different style to Stanislavski.
'The black shoes'
The play 'fear and misery of the third reach' is about ordinary life under the narzi's; how citizens were feeling defiance, secrecy, suspicion, anxiety, denial, violence, fear and dread. Shown through short scenes with other actors sitting on stage and bringing on and off props while the show is still seen to the audiences eye. I think Brecht decided to do this as he wanted to show the audience that nothing was a lie, including the 'on and off exits' the stories were real and the issues was real. Nothing was set up.
The scene 'The black shoes' is a quick scene between mother and child in a low class house. The young girl enters to her mum peeling potatoes for dinner 'again' the young girl begins to brag about a girls campsite run by hitler 'The hitter youth club' and how amazing it was and that she really wanted to go pleading for some 'pfennings' (money used back then) to return. Her mum begins to interrogate the daughter about what happens at the camp, (going back to the theme suspicion and anxiety) she then avoids the daughters comments only to be thrown with another question about 'the black shoes' with wholes in. Bluntly showing the difference in classes and how poor they really were.
I played the mother in the scene, I personally feel the mother was very insecure about her daughter going to this youth comitee, as she starts questioning her; scene 11 - line 14 "didn't she have some work to do to?" Interrogating what happens at the camp undercoverly when the subject is changed to the black shoes with holes in the mother asks "what's wrong with the welfare pair" the daughter then says back "they look clumsy" the mother then says how she will get the old pair resoled, bluntly showing she does have money to send her daughter to camp as getting shoes resoled was very expensive back then also explained by the daughter in scene 11 - line 25 "that's so expensive".
Going back to the theme 'blunt' the mother secretly doesn't want her daughter to go to camp and pretends she does not have the money but can afford to get her daughters shoes repaired even though she has others, the daughter in denial (another theme) about her mum not wanting her to go. This is clear to audience to see has no subliminal messages behind it.
During rehearsals I felt as if the play was not my suited style, I didn't feel as though I could express myself properly through the play and kind of felt hopeless in the sense how short and slightly boring I felt the scene was. I found it difficult to understand what was really going on even though brechts theme is 'blunt' and found it hard to learn lines as I didn't really connect with the scene as much as I have with other plays. I found brechts Stylism slightly strange with having other actors on stage when scenes are being performed as I felt it took away the whole 'magicness' of theatre. However I did enjoy learning about brechts theories and his Stylism even though I didn't enjoy doing it as such. I learnt that even though I didn't agree with it, it was still understandable to the audience and had a different approach to the average layout that theatre is normally performed in.
Conclusion
Overall I didn't enjoy working on this play as I didn't understand brechts Stylism. However I appreciate Learning about it as knowledge is the key to being a successful actor, and I can now take this knowledge with me in futher references if needed.
(Actors playing mother and daughter in the black shoes scene)