His Work
1957 Berliner Ensemble production of Life of Galileo
As James K. Lyon points out in Brecht Unbound, "Brecht appears to have been someone whose death did more to advance his career than any single act of his life. Almost from the moment of his funeral, officials in East Germany began a process that rapidly transformed him from a troublemaker into an almost saintly literary classic, while West German intellectuals, theater people, and publishers who discovered and promoted his works quickly laid the foundation for a 'Brecht industry' that still flourishes today. In the process, and despite a propensity for causing trouble long after his death, Brecht became, depending on how one views it, one of the most dominant influences on, or obstacles to, the development of German theater and literature in both Germanys for the next two-and-a-half decades."
In his early plays, Brecht experimented with dada and expressionism, but in his later work, he developed a style more suited his own unique vision. He detested the "Aristotelian" drama and its attempts to lure the spectator into a kind of trance-like state, a total identification with the hero to the point of complete self-oblivion, resulting in feelings of terror and pity and, ultimately, an emotional catharsis. He didn't want his audience to feel emotions--he wanted them to think--and towards this end, he determined to destroy the theatrical illusion, and, thus, that dull trance-like state he so despised. He envisioned the theater as more of a debate hall than a place of illusions.
The result of Brecht's research was a technique known as "verfremdungseffekt" or the "alienation effect". It was designed to encourage the audience to retain their critical detachment. His theories resulted in a number of "epic" dramas, among them Mother Courage and Her Children which tells the story of a travelling merchant who earns her living by following the Swedish and Imperial armies with her covered wagon and selling them supplies: clothing, food, brandy, etc... As the war grows heated, Mother Courage finds that this profession has put her and her children in danger, but the old woman doggedly refuses to give up her wagon. Mother Courage and Her Children was both a triumph and a failure for Brecht. Although the play was a great success, he never managed to achieve in his audience the unemotional, analytical response he desired. Audiences never fail to be moved by the plight of the stubborn old woman.
Explaining his technique in A Short Organum for the Theatre, Brecht says, "In order to produce A-effects [alienation effects] the actor has to discard whatever means he has learnt of getting the audience to identify itself with the characters which he plays. Aiming not to put his audience into a trance, he must not go into a trance himself. His muscles must remain loose, for a turn of the head, e.g. with tautened neck muscles, will 'magically' lead the spectators' eyes and even their heads to turn with it, and this can only detract from any speculation or reaction which the gesture may bring about. His way of speaking has to be free from parsonical sing-song and from all those cadences which lull the spectator so that the sense gets lost. Even if he plays a man possessed he must not seem to be possessed himself, for how is the spectator to discover what possessed him if he does?... His feelings must not at bottom be those of the character, so that the audience's may not at bottom be those of the character either. The audience must have complete freedom."
Renate Rechtien points out that it was not just his theatrical theories that Brecht was concerned with. He was equally political. "Brecht was always at odds with the prevailing official affirmative notion of culture," She says, "and continuously sought to challenge, undermine and transform it. Forged as a means of transforming society, art ... was understood by Brecht to be more than simply a superstructural affirmation of reality. Brecht defined its role as active and critical appropriation of reality, with the artist confronting, exposing and acting upon real societal contradictions with a view to bringing about social change" (Bertolt Brecht: Centenary Essays) And it is true that, in his resistance against the Nazi and Fascist movements, Brecht wrote his most famous plays: Galileo, Mother Courage and Her Children, Mr. Puntila and has man Matti, The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui, The Caucasian Chalk Circle, The Good Person of Sezuan, and many others. Astrid Herhoffer agrees that "Brecht commits himself in his work to the cause of the humiliated and the offended, and it is in this political commitment that lies the strength of his literary work" (Bertolt Brecht: Centenary Essays).
Bertolt Brecht's theories and personality were so dominating in his time, that the term "Brechtian" has come to be used by drama critics in regards to anything reminiscent of Brecht's particular style and approach to theatre.
Excerpted from Theatre Database
In his early plays, Brecht experimented with dada and expressionism, but in his later work, he developed a style more suited his own unique vision. He detested the "Aristotelian" drama and its attempts to lure the spectator into a kind of trance-like state, a total identification with the hero to the point of complete self-oblivion, resulting in feelings of terror and pity and, ultimately, an emotional catharsis. He didn't want his audience to feel emotions--he wanted them to think--and towards this end, he determined to destroy the theatrical illusion, and, thus, that dull trance-like state he so despised. He envisioned the theater as more of a debate hall than a place of illusions.
The result of Brecht's research was a technique known as "verfremdungseffekt" or the "alienation effect". It was designed to encourage the audience to retain their critical detachment. His theories resulted in a number of "epic" dramas, among them Mother Courage and Her Children which tells the story of a travelling merchant who earns her living by following the Swedish and Imperial armies with her covered wagon and selling them supplies: clothing, food, brandy, etc... As the war grows heated, Mother Courage finds that this profession has put her and her children in danger, but the old woman doggedly refuses to give up her wagon. Mother Courage and Her Children was both a triumph and a failure for Brecht. Although the play was a great success, he never managed to achieve in his audience the unemotional, analytical response he desired. Audiences never fail to be moved by the plight of the stubborn old woman.
Explaining his technique in A Short Organum for the Theatre, Brecht says, "In order to produce A-effects [alienation effects] the actor has to discard whatever means he has learnt of getting the audience to identify itself with the characters which he plays. Aiming not to put his audience into a trance, he must not go into a trance himself. His muscles must remain loose, for a turn of the head, e.g. with tautened neck muscles, will 'magically' lead the spectators' eyes and even their heads to turn with it, and this can only detract from any speculation or reaction which the gesture may bring about. His way of speaking has to be free from parsonical sing-song and from all those cadences which lull the spectator so that the sense gets lost. Even if he plays a man possessed he must not seem to be possessed himself, for how is the spectator to discover what possessed him if he does?... His feelings must not at bottom be those of the character, so that the audience's may not at bottom be those of the character either. The audience must have complete freedom."
Renate Rechtien points out that it was not just his theatrical theories that Brecht was concerned with. He was equally political. "Brecht was always at odds with the prevailing official affirmative notion of culture," She says, "and continuously sought to challenge, undermine and transform it. Forged as a means of transforming society, art ... was understood by Brecht to be more than simply a superstructural affirmation of reality. Brecht defined its role as active and critical appropriation of reality, with the artist confronting, exposing and acting upon real societal contradictions with a view to bringing about social change" (Bertolt Brecht: Centenary Essays) And it is true that, in his resistance against the Nazi and Fascist movements, Brecht wrote his most famous plays: Galileo, Mother Courage and Her Children, Mr. Puntila and has man Matti, The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui, The Caucasian Chalk Circle, The Good Person of Sezuan, and many others. Astrid Herhoffer agrees that "Brecht commits himself in his work to the cause of the humiliated and the offended, and it is in this political commitment that lies the strength of his literary work" (Bertolt Brecht: Centenary Essays).
Bertolt Brecht's theories and personality were so dominating in his time, that the term "Brechtian" has come to be used by drama critics in regards to anything reminiscent of Brecht's particular style and approach to theatre.
Excerpted from Theatre Database
Chronology of Plays
- Baal 1918
- Drums in the Night (Trommeln in der Nacht) 1918–20
- The Beggar (Der Bettler oder Der tote Hund) 1919
- A Respectable Wedding (Die Kleinbürgerhochzeit) 1919
- Driving Out a Devil (Er treibt einen Teufel aus) 1919
- Lux in Tenebris 1919
- The Catch (Der Fischzug) 1919
- In the Jungle of Cities (Im Dickicht der Städte) 1921–24
- The Life of Edward II of England (Leben Eduards des Zweiten von England) 1924
- Downfall of the Egotist Johann Fatzer (Der Untergang des Egoisten Johnann Fatzer) (fragments) 1926–30
- Man Equals Man (Mann ist Mann) 1924–26
- The Elephant Calf (Das Elefantenkalb) 1924–26
- Little Mahagonny (Mahagonny-Songspiel) 1927
- The Threepenny Opera (Die Dreigroschenoper) 1928
- The Flight across the Ocean (Der Ozeanflug); originally Lindbergh's Flight (Lindberghflug) 1928–29
- The Baden-Baden Lesson on Consent (Badener Lehrstück vom Einverständnis) 1929
- Happy End (Happy End) 1929
- The Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny (Aufstieg und Fall der Stadt Mahagonny) 1927–29
- He Said Yes / He Said No (Der Jasager; Der Neinsager) 1929–30
- The Decision (Die Maßnahme) 1930
- Saint Joan of the Stockyards (Die heilige Johanna der Schlachthöfe) 1929–31
- The Exception and the Rule (Die Ausnahme und die Regel) 1930
- The Mother (Die Mutter) 1930–31
- The Seven Deadly Sins (Die sieben Todsünden der Kleinbürger) 1933
- Round Heads and Pointed Heads (Die Rundköpfe und die Spitzköpfe) 1931–34
- The Horatians and the Curiatians (Die Horatier und die Kuriatier) 1933–34
- Fear and Misery of the Third Reich (Furcht und Elend des Dritten Reiches) 1935–38
- Señora Carrar's Rifles (Die Gewehre der Frau Carrar) 1937
- Life of Galileo (Leben des Galilei) 1937–39
- How Much Is Your Iron? (Was kostet das Eisen?) 1939
- Dansen (Dansen) 1939
- Mother Courage and Her Children (Mutter Courage und ihre Kinder) 1938–39
- The Trial of Lucullus (Das Verhör des Lukullus) 1938–39
- The Judith of Shimoda (Die Judith von Shimoda) 1940
- Mr Puntila and his Man Matti (Herr Puntila und sein Knecht Matti) 1940
- The Good Person of Szechwan (Der gute Mensch von Sezuan) 1939–42
- The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui (Der aufhaltsame Aufstieg des Arturo Ui) 1941
- The Visions of Simone Machard (Die Gesichte der Simone Machard ) 1942–43
- The Duchess of Malfi 1943
- Schweik in the Second World War (Schweyk im Zweiten Weltkrieg) 1941–43
- The Caucasian Chalk Circle (Der kaukasische Kreidekreis) 1943–45
- Antigone (Die Antigone des Sophokles) 1947
- The Days of the Commune (Die Tage der Commune) 1948–49
- The Tutor (Der Hofmeister) 1950
- The Condemnation of Lucullus (Die Verurteilung des Lukullus) 1938–39
- Report from Herrnburg (Herrnburger Bericht) 1951
- Coriolanus (Coriolan) 1951–53
- The Trial of Joan of Arc of Proven, 1431 (Der Prozess der Jeanne D'Arc zu Rouen, 1431) 1952
- Turandot (Turandot oder Der Kongreß der Weißwäscher) 1953–54
- Don Juan (Don Juan) 1952
- Trumpets and Drums (Pauken und Trompeten) 1955