#berltolt brecht

[piensoenversos]

"El cuerpo, de no sentir otro cuerpo cerca se va olvidando...

El alma, de no entregarse con toda el alma se va muriendo".

-Bertolt Brecht

[kajussimkus-blog]

Berltolt Brecht

A German playwright and director who created the Brechtian technique to combat naturalistic and manipulative theatre. The catalyst for this was World War 2, or more specifically - the Nazi movement manipulation. He had noticed that the same kind of manipulation that the Nazi's used was also implemented in theatre. Therefore, he combated this by creating a whole new theatre technique.

The alienation effect, now known as the Brechtian technique, replaces the emotionally compelling performances with entertainment or surprising jolts. Rather than getting invested in the characters, the audience would grow sceptical and become critical of the characters. With this, the actors would demonstrate their characters with cool, witty, and skilful self-critique. An important factor of this technique is the use of fourth wall breaking mechanics, such as exposing the behind-the-scenes technical machinery of the performance in amusing ways. Interacting with theatre instruments and manipulating them in laughable ways was part of the performance: visibly dabbing some water on the actors eyes to portray him as crying or calling out “Cue the angry red spotlight!” before he shrieking with rage managed to make the audience laugh without manipulation. Berltolts work was also very political, regularly taking jabs at the current state of the government and taking about related events taking place in the world. Exaggeration was an important part to his performances.

I personally am very interested in this type of acting and the way the technique was born. Berltolt created a whole new technique of acting to combat the Nazi's. That in itself is impressive, but the idea of breaking the fourth wall in clever ways during a performance is very appealing and interesting.

[wdlwta]

[azulaureo]

El analfabeto político. No oye, no habla, no participa de los acontecimientos políticos. No sabe que el costo de la vida, el precio del poroto, del pan, de la harina, del vestido, del zapato y de los remedios, dependen de decisiones políticas. El analfabeto político es tan burro que se enorgullece y ensancha el pecho diciendo que odia la política. No sabe que de su ignorancia política nace la prostituta, el menor abandonado, y el peor de todos los bandidos que es el político corrupto, mequetrefe y lacayo de las empresas nacionales y multinacionales.

Bertolt Brecht