Brecht in Practice: Theatre, Theory and Performance

Description

Bertolt Brecht’s reputation as a flawed, irrelevant or difficult thinker for the theatre can often go before him to such an extent that we run the risk of forgetting the achievements that made him and his company, the Berliner Ensemble, famous around the world. David Barnett examines both Brecht the theorist and Brecht the practitioner to reveal the complementary relationship between the two.This book aims to sensitize the reader to the approaches Brecht took to the world and the stage with a view to revealing just how carefully he thought about and realized his vision of a politicized, interventionist theatre. What emerges is a nuanced understanding of his concepts, his work with actors and his approaches to directing. The reader is encouraged to engage with Brecht’s method that sought to ‘make theatre politically’ in order to locate the innovations he introduced into his stagecraft. There are many examples given of how Brecht’s ideas can be staged, and the final chapter takes two very different plays and asks how a Brechtian approach can enliven and illuminate their production. Ultimately, the book invites readers, students and theatre-makers to discover new ways of apprehending and making use of Brecht. Cover Contents Acknowledgements Introduction (Re)Introducing Brecht Format and scope 1 Revealing the Radical Theorist Brecht as theorizing practitioner The different functions of theory to Brecht Theorizing as a private and public activity Understanding the assumptions of the ‘Short Organon’, or: An introduction to dialectics The appeal of dialectics to Brecht What is Brecht teaching? Defining ‘the Brechtian’ Making theatre politically The radicalism of the ‘Short Organon’ 2 Buying Brass as Performative Thinking Theorizing with more than one voice The possibilities of performing theory A Brechtian performance of Buying Brass Not only dialogues: Buying Brass’s scenes for actors Montage, or: Structured disruption in the episodic form of Buying Brass 3 Brecht and Difference The centrality of change and its relationship to difference in Brecht’s theatre Forgetting ‘character’ How to build a contradictory ‘figure’ The dangers of empathy in theatrical communication Interrupting empathy in Brecht’s theatre Separating the elements of the performance and the meaning of ‘epic theatre’ Historicization and/as Verfremdung Theatre as a site of contradiction, not merely conflict 4 Method Trumps Styles The Brechtian method: Greater than the sum of its parts The centrality of the Fabel Arrangement as the Fabel made flesh Locating the actor in society: The discovery of a figure’s Gestus A figure is the sum of all its Haltungen Brecht’s theatre of showing Realism and Brecht’s dialectical method 5 Brecht and the Actor There is no ‘Brechtian Style’ of acting Brecht and casting, or: Cleaving the actor from the role Observation, realism and Gestus Sensitizing the actor to dialectics The actor-as-demonstrator in theory and practice Playing the situation and not the character, or: The problem of saying ‘I’ The pursuit of naturalness and lightness in a stylized theatre Acting and emotion 6 Brecht and the Director Inductive direction, or: The ‘invisibility’ of the Brechtian director The tasks of the Brechtian director The prerequisite for a Brechtian director: A vibrant ensemble Rehearsing with an inductive director Abolishing the read-through, or: The status of the text in rehearsal The rehearsal process and its social goals Connecting the individual to society: Details, customs and monologues Bringing out the social in performance: Focus on The Broken Jug 7 Brecht, Documentation and the Art of Copying Imitation and innovation The building blocks of documentation at the Berliner Ensemble: Notate Demystifying the theatrical process: ‘Modelbooks’ Making use of the ‘models’ Copying as productive activity 8 Using Brecht’s Method Applicability and approach The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui: Identifying the problems of a potential production Relativizing the centrality of Arturo Ui Avoiding the ‘allegory trap’ Making Ui’s rise ‘resistible’ Closer: Why Brecht? The social contexts of 1990s Britain Investigating the ‘Micro-Fabel’ Extending the reach Epilogue Working with Brecht Working with Brecht beyond Brecht Notes Bibliography (including list of abbreviations) Works by Brecht Other Works Works by Brecht: List of Abbreviations Index