Studied medicine for
most of his life
Was in the army but
couldn’t fight because he had a face twitch
Religious
Most political play –
The Rise and Fall of the City Mahagonny caused
Established Berliner
Ensemble Company
Mother was a devut
protestant and made a huge impact on his beliefs
Father encouraged him
into medicine and the wars
Likes to look at the
absurdity that people lived their lives
Lived in Germany
during WWI and WWII
Look at worldwide
events and observe it, not be involved in it
Marxism – “order
created from chaos”. Order can only be found in disorder
First collaborated
with Lion Feuchtwanger
Hans Eisler –
Austrian composer
- music shouldn’t be
Kurt Weill – German
composer
Only have props on set
that are needed.
Philosophies – Know
that they are actors playing characters
Wanted the audience to
not feel emotional towards the characters. Look at the situation critically.
“Alienation effect”
Everything was shown
(backstage, stage crew)
Actors need to show
that they are just actors
All this is to make
the audience think critically about the events
Juxtaposition of
emotion
Uses music to
highlight the fact that it’s not a real scenario
Mother courage –
doing what she must in order to survive
Brecht
Key figure of 20th
century theatre.
Essence of naturalism
(what lies behind most modern performances)
Born into conflict
and contradictions
WWI when he was 16.
Many of his friends died. Financial, political, personal instability
Escaped trench
warfare by working in medical
Surrounded by death
and wounded
Moved to Munich then
Berlin
Incredibly charismatic
Wrote everything
Devoted followers
Accused of taking
other people’s ideas as his own
1920s divorced and
married an actor and wrote plays
Exile 1933-1948
1948- death: berlin
Most plays were
writing before he was able to perform then. Most were unperformed
Theories changed
throughout his life
Theatre should not
just reflect the world, but change it
Epic theatre
Used all kinds of
resources and inspiration
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