Brecht, Alienation & Pee

I've been burying myself in research for the show, doing some in-depth work on Bertolt Brecht and his Epic theatre of Alienation. Today, I came across this great site in the UK called Universal Teacher. They have a very rich site on Brecht and the study of his theories, practice and works. Excellent!

It's been a long time since I found myself immersed in Brecht's world. I'd forgotten how much I enjoy the developing theories, the influences of German Expressionism and Marxism on his world view of the stage.

Breaking the convention of suspension of disbelief in favor of distancing his audience; to remove the emotion from the equation in an attempt to present a theatre of ideas and argument, to view a play from a critical rather than emotional standpoint.

I continue to find his experiment an engaging one, although I'm not sure he ever truly succeeded at it in a pure sense. I have seen a well wrought Mother Courage that broke my heart even as it presented his social ideas, doing its very best to keep me at arms length. Then again, maybe that is the mark of success. Empathy versus Illusion.

"...acting is acting in quotation marks." It must be completely self-aware to work this way.