The Tokyo Fish Story: Augusto Boal And Bertolt Brecht

Augusto Boal and Bertolt Brecht are two performance theorists who have two very different perspectives on theatre. Brecht used his experience of a Marxist to influence his idea of “epic theatre” to stir the will of action in its audience. Boal believed it to be detrimental for a play’s audience to have an emotional understanding of the characters and the effects the play have on said characters. I am curious about how the theories of Boal and Brecht apply to Tokyo Fish Story which was written by Kimber Lee and directed by Kristen Brandt. Through this paper, I will be discussing how I believe Boal and Brecht would both view the production of Tokyo Fish Story and its various performance elements. Boal and Brecht would have strong opinions about the Mr. Koji’s monologues. Koji has multiple instances where he speaks in monologues to the audience (Lee, 2016). He is often not addressing anyone in particular. However, there were moments where it could be interpreted that he is addressing his son as well as the audience. When he is looking at the blue fish tuna at the beginning of the production, he says how they are too young. He looks into the audience and states that they need to consume “many more calendars”. Brecht would applaud the choice of having the monologues address the audience. This …show more content…
127). it keeps them from being completely immersed in the experience. Boal would appreciate the emotionality that Mr. Koji has in his later monologues, which would help the audience better empathize with the character (Boal, 2000, pg. xviii). However, the vaguely direct address which separates the audience from being able to fully understand the idea of the story and its effect on the character (Boal, 2000, pg. 28). In addressing the audience, it creates an emotional rift that makes the audience hyper-aware of their part of being the consumer of the