Bertolt Bretch’s Portrayal of Social and Political Matters in His Works

Bertolt Brecht wanted his works to revolutionise theatre's bourgeois values and generate a social and political shift. As an influential dramatist, he developed a firm impression that theatre should make us; ‘think about power and the way our society works and it does this with a clear purpose, to make change’. His fundamental philosophies have, undeniably, changed the theatrical landscape forever, as his work continues to spark political criticism around the world; contemporary theatre owes a great deal to his methods.

‘Bertolt Brecht is without a doubt the most important and influential dramatist of the twentieth century worldwide’ (Bowen, 2006). As a writer, director, dramaturg and theatre theorist, Brecht’s impact on European theatre was incomparable in the 20th century. Valued highly as a poet for his rich use of German, his primary artistic objective was to create theatre completely opposite to Stanislavski’s naturalistic approach; Bretch was against catharsis. By the late 1920s it had become apparent to Brecht that this would require not only a new kind of dramatic writing but also the destruction of the bourgeois theatre system. Bretch was highly influenced by the likes of Büchner and Frank Wedekind during his earlier plays, for instance ‘Drums in the Night’, revealing the amplified emotions of expressionist theatre. However, this also exposed his gradual transition to the greater disengagement, clearly apparent within his later work. The cognitive disturbance triggered by all of Brecht’s techniques serves to ‘alter the spectator’s habitual way of thinking about the way things are’. By exposing the contradictions inherent in capitalist society, a play could enable the spectator to devise ways to change the world into a place fit for people to live in. In rebelling against bourgeois values, the protagonists of these early plays anticipate the Marxist critique that Brecht was to articulate more coherently in later plays.

As an attempt to fight what he saw as a corrupt capitalist society, he implemented his own style of theatre; Epic Theatre, that fully absorbed the audience and invoked their engagement. His desire was to ‘call attention to the crookedness of German society and ignite a revolution’ (Bertolt Bretch, 2019). When naturalistic theatre was at its height and acted as a reflection of society, Bretch chose to use it as a drive for change. Moreover, he was drawn to the idea of ‘self-consciously retelling a story rather than realistically embodying the events of a narrative’ (Gordon, 2017), promoting an attitude of inquisitiveness as opposed to the empathic response to the expressionistic and naturalistic forms dictating/dominating Germany at that time.

The structure of Epic Theatre is powerful, as it forces audiences to apply critique to the world after leaving the performance. ‘Man Equals Man’, written and produced by the ‘Bretch Collective’, was Bretch’s initial experiment with his new theatrical style. The play is vaguely set in colonial British India and is a parable of the ‘malleability of human-self’ uncovering the way in which a resilient social hierarchy- in this context, the army- controls and shapes individuals to ensure they are of use to civilisation. Conversely, viewed from a Marxist perspective, the play could be interpreted as a symbol of how a working person might choose to surrender some aspects of his personal identity to transform himself into a ‘comrade’ in a revolutionary society of equals. The play exposes identity as something easily corrupted and fragile, yet also arouses questions amongst modern day audiences; does “free will” exist? Or are human beings merely victims of social construction? In order to progress as a writer, I believe that taking Bretch’s political outlook and epic theatre style on board would enable me to generate work that holds more depth, in turn spawning more of a debate within the audience, regarding political issues of the time.

‘Mother Courage and her children’ was written by Bretch whilst he was in Sweden in self-exile, on the eve of World War II. It is distinctive of Bretch’s theatrical innovation and political intention, representing Europe’s Thirty Years War, as the audience follows the Imperial and Swedish armies through the battle of the Protestants and Catholics. The play aims to challenge the spectator’s assumptions on an assortment of social customs; motherhood, war, business and morality, instead of frankly stating these themes. It inspires the audience to alienate itself from their comfortable positions and reassess the world. Bretch specified that he wanted to show that; ‘war, which is a continuation of business by other means, makes the human virtues fatal to their possessors’ (Jones, 1986), making the audience conclude that war, is likewise an inevitable event just part of human existence, devouring life; a ‘timeless abstraction’ (Jones, 1986). In my opinion, it is one of Bretch’s most impactful plays as it places us directly in judgement of a woman whose actions ‘inhabit a universe defined by war’ (Kushner, 2009), making what is arguably disastrous choices, she is always afraid of seeming weak. As an audience watching her grow lonelier, she becomes dehumanised; monstrous, expressing to us how the effects of war upon humanity are undeniably adverse. The didacticism lies in the flaws of the characters choices and how they have affected their lives and their worth. Moreover, Mother Courage’s actions forces the audience to question: ‘how much is life really worth? How much am I like Mother Courage? What would I change or do differently?’. His choice to set the play during the Thirty Years War (1618–48) – a diverse yet analogous historical situation to 1939 – urged the spectator to think in historical terms about ‘the material conditions that had precipitated the war which was about to engulf Europe’ (Gordon, 2017); historicization. To a modern-day audience, I believe this play is an eye opener to the traumas of war back in the 1900s and serves as a reminder to prevent further conflict. Alternatively it allows contemporary practitioners to produce the show and fully express their own personal views on modern-day warfare.

The ‘Lehrstücke’; a radical and experimental form of modernist theatre, was developed by Bretch and his collaborators. Its core principle was to explore all the possibilities of learning that would stem from acting, playing roles and adopting attitudes; minimising the divide between performer and spectator. Having realised that a new form of theatre could not be established by merely burlesquing the conventions of bourgeois theatre, he wrote a series of short plays during the 1930s; ‘He Who Said Yes/ He Who Said No’ ‘The Measures Taken’ and ‘The Exception’, all of which falling into a new type of proletarian theatre. The plays manifest three fundamental aesthetic principles; verfremdungseffekt, historicization; deliberately setting the action of a play in the past in order to draw parallels with contemporary events and gestus; gesture or movement used by the actor that captures a moment or attitude rather than delving into emotion and reminding the spectator of the mindful artistry of the work’s construction, openly indicating Bretch’s viewpoint. Augusto Boal; theatre practitioner, drama theorist, and political activist fostered the Brechtian form of Lehrstücke into his own globally acclaimed ‘Theatre of the Oppressed’, with its techniques of ‘forum theatre’ and ‘invisible theatre’ to heighten strong social change, contributing to the emergence of the ‘Theatre for Development’ movement. Although Boal truly praises Bretch’s techniques, he tries to move beyond them; ‘the division between actor and spectator is still in place. The actor or director is still in a position of telling a story to a passive audience, even if the story reflects what the director takes to be reality. This means that there is still only one way of thinking allowed. Speech is power’ (Robinson, 2016). Additionally, this leaves me to deliberate whether Bretch’s methods are still relevant today in contemporary theatre and still inspiring contemporary practitioners, or if it is just a blip of past theatrical endeavours.

The defamiliarization effect, often misleadingly interpreted as the ‘alienation effect’, is a technique used to enable the audience to become a ‘conscious critical observer’ (Shakespeares, 2014), provoking them to partake in a rational self-reflection and a critical view of the action on the stage; ‘they must not sit back and feel but sit forward and think’ (Hub, 2014), igniting their inquisitiveness that Bretch hopes for. The use of the verfremdungseffekt in contemporary theatre creates a greater sense of detachment for the audience, particularly through his choice of narration that would typically tell an audience the events before they actually take place, theorizing the role art could play in undermining dominant worldviews and its potential role in creating social revolution. Bretch believed it steered the audience to believing that there are ‘no universal values, that life is impermanent, that the world can be changed’ (Battle, 2012). This writing technique is effective as, due to the audience being aware of the action taking place, it ensures they do not get too involved in the storyline, as a sudden happening will not daze them, sequentially meaning they will not grow an emotional bond with the characters. I believe this is a powerful technique to use within my own writing, as the contrasting structure of the very standard naturalistic performance, generates more depth to the narrative, in turn challenging the audience, giving them a more exciting journey, as they don’t expect the fourth wall to be broken. Having a lack of attachment to the performance, makes them realise the possible injustice and inequality amongst society, forcing them to deliberate change. ‘The Roundheads and the Peakheads’; one of these propaganda plays, presents Hitler’s theory of inferior and superior races, within Germany at the time.

Similarly, with his poetry, Bretch continues to use evocative language and endures the process of making the reader reflect and question, through his use of rhetorical writing. His style and diction are consistent, idiomatic and often very close to ordinary speech, along with his diverse choice of literary forms; narrative, lyrical meditations, maxims, satires and sonnets. He was influenced heavily by Frank Wedekind and was a true admirer of his poetry and technique; combining diverse modes of theatre, in order to place the spectator in an uncomfortable position. Bretch’s love poems are a memorable and necessary reminder of the feeling artist in him, amongst his collection of bleak and almost cynical plays. Within his lyrics, the individualism and ‘anarchic vibrancy’, along with his depiction of political and social values; typically spurring on the focused topic of the poem, all contributes to making them so irresistibly powerful and distinctive. Bretch struggled with society at the time; with his strong mindfulness of human self-effacement and his deep bitterness for the way humanity was being manipulated, led to his realisation of how ‘only the theory of inevitable social progress offered him a real alternative to nihilistic despair’.

As an Atheist, who believed not in the truth, but in probability, he saw communism as the most likely medium of anti-fascism and social justice, resulting in him writing a ‘poetic attack on revisionism’ (H, 1961); ‘Do not follow the right road without us, without us it is, the worst of all.’ His use of repetition; ‘without us’ is very dismal and enigmatic, forcing the readers to question; ‘without who?’, forming a sense of pessimism, or alternatively seclusion. From another point of view the phrase could be interpreted as very controlling and directing, through the use of the strong command word; ‘don’t’, almost giving them no choice; no freedom. However, Bretch’s work was undesirable to the communist critics, and within the Soviet Union his mockery of the capitalist civilisation required pertinence. I haven’t yet explored poetry within my own writing practises, nevertheless I do intend to, and I aim to experiment with Bretch’s poetic writing style in a lot of depth. Poetry really fascinates me; the idea of rhyme and rhythm are an interest of mine, along with classic techniques such as repetition and rhetoric writing, both used greatly by Bretch. I want to write poems that stimulate, not necessarily a huge social change, but just alter an opinion on a smaller scale and make people more aware of certain political pandemonium, for instance modern day issues like Brexit, or global warming, which would hopefully benefit generations to come and help to educate them about the world we live in.

‘The Good Person of Szechwan’ was written as a demonstration of Brecht's opposition to the National Socialist and Fascist movements. As a non-Aristotle play, Bretch’s techniques; monologues, direct address, poetic lyrics and alliteration, are all common throughout it, characterising it as a classic, eminent Brechtian piece. At the end of Scene 1, Shen Te says to herself; ‘The little lifeboat is swiftly sent down, too many men too greedily, hold on to it as they drown’. This poetic speech generates sympathy within the audience, as Bretch’s use of alliterative language; ‘little lifeboat’, ‘swiftly sent’, ‘many men’, gives it a sense of softness, particularly with the sibilant sounds, yet also a rhythmic pace, as the audience pity her. Moreover, the repetition of the adverb ‘too’ excessively exaggerates ‘greedily’; an intense and selfish desire for wealth or power, yet also intensifies the number of men, giving the audience a greater perception of the masses. Through the use of the monologue, it allows the audience to obtain her inside thoughts, meaning that they gain a deeper understanding of her intentions and emotional state. The audience can then acknowledge that many people are taking full advantage of her kindness, but ‘Shen Te cannot help everyone; for if she tries, nobody will survive, including herself’ (The Good Woman of Setzuan, 2018). For a contemporary audience the logic of scenic narration leads them to a radical assumption of deep depravity and inhumanity of such a social system, this play in particular highlights the lack of hope within society at the time, leading to everyone grasping hold of any obtainable sanguinity. Subsequently, through the odd, original plot, Bertolt Bretch exposes a very ‘unnatural and paradoxical status of society’, where we can only attain good at the cost of evil. This deduction is a ruthless judgment to the forbidding, cruel world of gluttony, greed and self-indulgence. 

Bretch’s use of the techniques I have mentioned above are regularly seen throughout his writing, and I believe they are beneficial in helping him to portray his messages and intense themes of political and social issues across. For instance, long monologues or just a brief minute where the character is seen talking to themselves, can clarify one’s attitude towards a matter by individually expressing and illuminating the audience with self-experiences or self-knowledge, whilst giving the audience different points of view on behalf of each different character. In my opinion monologues are an intriguing technique, helping to break up a large amount of text and focus in on one individual temperament; reinforcing their particular socialist conviction. I am stimulated with the idea of writing monologues as it allows me to freely run away with my internal thoughts and express much deeper thoughts to the audience in quite a vulnerable, exposing way; which I think is very powerful.

Furthermore, I am highly enthused by Bretch’s distinctive structural choices, with each scene being known as ‘episodes’ which are ‘relatively self-contained’. His epic plays employ a non-linear, fractured plot, where certain single events are not always a result of the proceeding one. Moreover, his use of a prologue; an active structural decision, in ‘The Caucasian Chalk Circle’, firstly helps to set the scene, yet more importantly, it immediately drives the audience to ‘reckon with the harsh realities of economic and social inequality',  as it is extremely Communist in its message. In accordance with his Marxist political preferences, the play represents the selfishness and negligence of the rich and the diligence, in a stark contrast, of the poor. Bretch decided to situate this ‘social critique’ within the political instability and chaos in Grusinia. Through his use of descriptive language within the prologue, Bretch craftly builds an ambiance of ‘uproar and rebellion’, in order to reveal how chaos can be damaging and generative, suggesting that ‘chaos and chance can be forces of renewal and redemption as they hold potential… to hasten the arrival of change’. In my opinion, a prologue is effective, as it gets the moral of the play across to the audience before they have even watched it. This links back to his verfremdungseffekt; the audience know what to expect, so therefore are less likely to get absorbed into the action.