Bernolt Brecht developed a new and modern theatre style in order to communicate socio-political issues as a purpose to learn. ‘’The main objective is to learn to think crudely. Crude thinking is the great one’s thinking’’ Brecht stated in one of his books. He achieves political and sociocultural awareness as a tool to encourage the spectators the possibility of change. This new theatre form, named Epic theatre contrasted the realistic ideology of other practitioners, such as Stanislavski who believed that immerging the audience in the performance and sympathizing with the characters through a journey of emotions and experiences would arrive to the understanding of the practitioner’s implication. Epic theatre follows the opposite course in order
…show more content…
When I went further in depth while studying this play I realised the importance of considering the political situation of those times as it had a highly impact on ‘’Mother courage and her children’’. The play was written in 1949, four years after the Second World War finally ended. It was set in the 17th century portraying twelve years of war starting from the middle of the ‘’thirty years war’’ period in Europe. Thus, allowing brecht to contrast the war effects, both beginning and end at the same time than placing war extremes in a balance in order to examine the development of the characters due a social-political issue. You can also perceive his leftist inclination in the play as he constantly criticises the right-wing government corruption on this time period as well as manifests his opposition to social inequality and hierarchy. This shows that ‘’Mother courage and her children’’ is placed in a socio-political and historical context in order to symbolise the violence and brutality of a real world problem. For instance, through his play brecht tries to instil the audience the effect of violence in our society. As expressed earlier in my investigation, epic theatre does not try to transmit this message through emotions or empathy but through asking ourselves why things are happening? in order to internalize our own message. By means of diverse dramatic techniques brecht accomplishes the Verfremdungseffect permitting the audience to have a panoramic view of a socio-political issue rather than the limited view of one of the characters, which leads to a more objective understanding of what a society’s image
When I went further in depth while studying this play I realised the importance of considering the political situation of those times as it had a highly impact on ‘’Mother courage and her children’’. The play was written in 1949, four years after the Second World War finally ended. It was set in the 17th century portraying twelve years of war starting from the middle of the ‘’thirty years war’’ period in Europe. Thus, allowing brecht to contrast the war effects, both beginning and end at the same time than placing war extremes in a balance in order to examine the development of the characters due a social-political issue. You can also perceive his leftist inclination in the play as he constantly criticises the right-wing government corruption on this time period as well as manifests his opposition to social inequality and hierarchy. This shows that ‘’Mother courage and her children’’ is placed in a socio-political and historical context in order to symbolise the violence and brutality of a real world problem. For instance, through his play brecht tries to instil the audience the effect of violence in our society. As expressed earlier in my investigation, epic theatre does not try to transmit this message through emotions or empathy but through asking ourselves why things are happening? in order to internalize our own message. By means of diverse dramatic techniques brecht accomplishes the Verfremdungseffect permitting the audience to have a panoramic view of a socio-political issue rather than the limited view of one of the characters, which leads to a more objective understanding of what a society’s image