Bertolt Brecht’s Play
- Prasun Banerjee
- Apr 10, 2021
- 1 min read
My realization
I am currently working on a play by Brecht (translated into Bengali by Utpal Dutta).
This is my first direction of Brecht’s play and I have noticed certain interesting elements in his plays- which I have read so far.
The most striking one is a lack of names for characters and the liberal use of songs to set the tone. This particular play (Bangla adaptation named ‘Samadhaan’) betrays no emotion of his life-long leaning towards Communism, rather jabs the communist system in the rib cage on a number of occasions.
The second unmistakable element is the use of spass or comedy as a technique to highlight political message of the play.
To be honest, I am still not fully aware of the Brechtian acting methods. It will be really challenging experience to Break The Fourth Wall by allowing the characters to directly address the crowd. The relief is that according to Brechtian prescription, songs have to be played in the background, so the difficulty in finding out a singer-actor can be dodged to a great extent. Unlike the dramatic theatre, this epic theatre format of Brecht require distancing of the actors from the characters- an art which very few could master. Overall, a political, linear, minimalistic and unemotional display at the risk of loosing popular applause presents a very challenging situation to the director and the actors. Can we survive this ruthless prescription? - Let’s see.
The twentieth century German theaterist Brecht a hardcore believer of critical observation never did identify with passive identification, thus induction of music/ songs, technology, narrator and signs as various techniques to pull down the, what you call, the fourth wall, bringing about the conscious concept that you are watching the play. He was opposed to the idea of creating illusions on the stage and his strong hatred for the Fascism his forte.
Though best acclaimed for creating epic theater 🎥 laced with revolutionary ideologies, aiming to create the socio-political change with episodic structures leaned heavily on Communism. But can one completely succeed in preventing oneself from the emotional involvement when you are the audience!!!
As always you are brilliant with…
👍👍
Beautifull
Have gone through it! Beautifully put up... This is what I also understood... Brecht himself has given an altogether a different point of view of his so familiar belief in communism... This is more or less self criticism that is desirable for betterment of any practicing ideology but in reality almost each and every political flag bearer hardly involves into it. And this is indeed typical Brechtian for he always talks about the 'estrangement effect' which is never possible unless and until the playwright takes a neutral position that determines the distancing effect in respect of the play's appeal to the audience. You have subtly pointed out the crux of the whole theme/thing. Congratulations!
We believe - you will definitely strike the rotten stumps of our stereotyped society.
Always at your best.
Seeking out the mammoth execution.
Kudos.