Final

Front 1

Political Satire

Back 1

-Satire employs humor.
-Satire has a target and an ideal to compare it to.
-Satire describes foolishness in detail.
-From ancient times satirists have shared a common aim: to expose foolishness in all its guises — vanity, hypocrisy, pedantry, idolatry, bigotry, sentimentality — and to effect reform through such exposure.

Front 2

Aristophanes’ Lysistrata (410 BC)

Back 2

-revolves around the women of Athens who decide to withhold sex from their husbands until the men outlaw war (antiwar message).

Front 3

Bertolt Brecht (1898-1956):

Back 3

-Brecht sought to stimulate the minds of his audience, integrating economics and politics into his plays.
-Brecht was both playwriter and producer/director of plays. His work can be considered in 3 stages:
The Early Period
The Propaganda Plays
The Plays of Brecht's Maturity

Front 4

The Living Theater:

Back 4

1947: the Living Theater was founded as an alternative to commercial theater.
1960s: Living Theater evolved into a collective, living and working together toward the creation of a new form of nonfictional acting based on the actor’s political commitment to using the theater as a medium for furthering social change.
1970s: the Living Theater began to create “The Legacy of Cain” (= a cycle of plays for non-traditional venues such as prisons, slums, schools, free of charge).
Today: the Living Theater company performs its plays in New York and on tour.

Front 5

Brecht the Early Period

Back 5

The early plays are humorous and present socio-political issues, attacking bourgeois values.
Technically, the plays are (for their time) innovative:
The bourgeois convention of the fourth wall is rejected
Stories are improbable
Songs serve as commentary on action
The Threepenny Opera (Die Dreigroschenoper, 1928)
The play was an attempt 1) to satirize traditional opera and operetta, and 2) to create a new kind of musical theater.