SUMMARY of Bertolt Brecht A Short Organum for Theatre

Bertolt Brecht

 A Short Organum for Theatre

Brecht detested Aristotelian drama; he believed that when this drama produced feelings of terror and catharsis then it prevented audience from thinking. Brecht’s Marxist political convention led him to propose an alternative direction for theater, a theatre which would fuse entertainment and instruction. This theatre would offer models of life that would help the audience to understand social environment. The main element of Brechtian theatre is “alienation”. The audience must be reminded that it is a play.

Brecht’s staging technique

1.   3D set pieces

2.   Revolving stage and other machinery

3.   Gestures of actors(gestus)

4.   Projection of captions preceding the scene so audience knows that will happen and can pay greater focus on it.

5.   Actor’s identification/ technique- actors should have a social attitude or judgment in portrayal of character without social judgment or critical judgment humans move towards dogmatism.

6.   Brecht used mixed style, contradiction, inconsistencies’ and dialectics of situation and character.

7.   Costumes made clear what class it was representing

8.   Gestures are social rather than historical.

1

Theatre makes lives representations of reported or invented happenings between human beings with a view of entertainment.

2

Pleasure is the noblest function for theatre

3

Theatre will fail if the moral lesson does not prove enjoyable to the senses and morality can be gained only by enjoyment. Theatre is excessive and it does not need any justification because theatre is all about pleasure and pleasure doesn’t need any justification

4

Aristotle expected tragedy to entertain people. Catharsis (fear or pity) is performed for the purpose of pleasure.

5

Pleasure needs to be left in peace to give pleasure to people

6

Pleasures are of different types – high and low, strong and weak

Stronger drama are richer in communication, more contradictory, intricate and more productive of results.

7

Different periods have different pleasure according to the people and society of that time. Theatre was used to represent men’s life in different ways.

8

Characters were differently structured according to different points of view.

Greeks- lawful, no ignorance

French- self discipline

Englishmen- self-awareness of new individual personality

9

Pleasure is attained by those representations wo are unlike reality. Incorrectness is not wrong unless it has consistency and improbability.

10

Such representations as seen 9 still give entertainment to us.

12

Our enjoyment of theatre is less than our predecessors. We only enjoy In terms of beauty of language, elegance of narration and passage which stimulate our private imagination (narration, language and imagination hide imprecision of story). According to Aristotle narrative is soul of drama- new theatre has less capacity and wish to show theatre. Humans are presented crudely and carelessly- way of appreciation (new theatre) is out dated.

13

The inaccuracy of depiction of human beings in theatre reduced pleasure.

14

Theatre which can give immediate pleasure will come from representing men’s life together and man’s life is presented by the new sciences.

15

New discovery is given to people who would make practical use of them and also get personal profit. New crafts were developed which gave new power to mankind.

16

Man made efforts to make the planet a fitting home. Surroundings were changing rapidly with technology.

17

Science made changes in surroundings possible, but science has not reached masses (proletariats) because bourgeoisie class stopped it.

18

Exploitation of nature and men benefit minority of people. War leads to death of men who developed this science.

19

The bourgeoisie who was using science for its domination knew that their rule would end if science turned against them and new science deals with character of human society and was a result of struggle between rulers and ruled.

20

Science and art both are here to make men’s life easier. Science maintains life and at is for entertainment. Art will be greatest pleasure because it can improve maintenance

21

Critical thinking is for pleasure. Theatre should not make the real people forget their occupation while watching the play.

23

Theatre can address issues if alternations be made in it. Art must be developed according to changing. Men will be away from science only by force. Brechtian theatre will have productivity as main; and productivity is main entertainment. The theatre should represent reality effectively so it has to be real as well. The theatre should maintain and entertain and also get entertained.

24

Theatre is close to education and masses and it helps in enjoyment in teaching and critical thinking. Theatre’s representation of society can influence society as well. Entertainment with wisdom helps in problem solving along with anger which is practical expression of sympathy.

25

Theatre lets us enjoy its own age, it provides a critical approach which turns productivity to pleasure.

26

The stage is detached and has profound sensations which grow deeper and the work of actors is approved.

28

Representations of central character are general so people can identify with them. Minor characters keep on changing. The audience would think of a consistent world where they can dream.

30

Old theatre

It represented individuals against society and social evils. Temporary restriction of plot and language and spiritual scope was also there. Human relations were focused upon.

31

Theatre were amusement center of classes which restricted science to nature so it won’t harm human relations. Tiny portion of proletariats needed old theatre to escape pre- determined way of life.

33

Theatre shows structure of society which is not and can’t be influenced by society

34

The feelings and insights of characters are forced upon audience and so people are unable to grasp anything other than what they are shown.

37

Characters move by social impulses, audience finds it hard to relate to the character.

38

Historical conditions must not be imagined they change according to the actions on the stage.

39

Character responds differently (first in historical period and then in some other) so does that make him everyman? Because men respond differently according to circumstance.

40

This acting leaves audience’s intellect free and highly

41

Alienation effect (a- effect)- it is representing on recognizing the subject but it may seem unfamiliar. Classical and medieval theatre alienated characters.

43

Old A effect removed character from audience’s mind but new A effect will free character from socially conditions ideas.

44

Material dialectics

A child or an actor for e.g. learns things as seen in society, they do things by getting influenced by the society

45

Dialectic materialism

This method treats social situations as processes and traces all the inconsistencies. It’s in disharmony with itself. Human’s life finds expression in feelings, opinions and attitude.

46

Theatre must alienate what it shows so it can face the society and represent it.

47

Producing A- effect- leave things he learnt to make the audience identify with the character. Way of speaking should be free from any songs which can make audience’s senses lost.

48

Actor must not fully transform in the character. Audience may not be covered by the feelings of character, audience should be free.

49

Brechtian theatre- contradiction in consistency, unstructured, defaming reality, improvisation on stage, reality can be altered, inviting masses (audience) to participate.

50

The actor won’t have to make sure that it’s the author’s character and not himself to the audience. He also won’t have to show that the play has not been rehearsed before. The actor from start to end should maintain a calm and independent thought.

51

Brecht directly questions natural theatre. The character and speaking dialogues of one period but the actress is from another period and starts speaking differently. This is authorship on dialogue narration.

52

If action fits characters and characters fit action then inconsistencies’ in actions and characters can’t be shown. Society is imperfect and to represent societies’ experimental conditions must be performed. ( actions performed as an experiment)

53

Actors also have contradictions; they learn by observation and look upon how to express their characters. Consistency of characters is shown by the way its individual qualities contradict each other.

54

Observation- an actor observes other actors to fully observe he thinks the actors are asking him to give careful consideration to their actions.

55

Opinion and objectives represent knowledge of actor about his character.

57

Actor- the actor’s pronouncement should be natural but he must think before voicing his opinions and then consider other pronouncements. It helps in building the character and also the character is not fixed by something. Actor should explore on what doesn’t suit him to gain more human nature. He must commit to memory, first reactions, reserves, criticisms, shock so they don’t get eaten up in final. The character shouldn’t grow on the audience; audience should be free to think.

58

The dominant actor gets all actors to work for him. He ruins his character because he tells his partners to make their actor terrified. Actors should swap role in rehearsals to gain experience and exposure. The understanding and perspective of character is deeply understood. By helping others the actors strengthens his social stand- point. (which helps his characters portrayal)

61

Gesture- the actors are not alienated from audience. It’s a Marxist theatre. Theatre is constant interaction.

-          Physical attitude, tone of voice

-          facial expression, instructing one another

-          Gestures are highly complicated and contradictory so the actor has to work hard to accomplish the necessary image.

65

Story is the heart of theatrical performance; it provides people with the material they can discuss and criticize. Story combines all the gestures, incidents and communication which will result in audience’s entertainment.

66

Stage movements are so elegant that gestures are very easy for audiences to understand.

67

Parts of the story must be set off against each other to form the structure of the play. Titles- must include social point- it may say or portray what the lay wants to show. There are many ways to tell a story. (Poetic approach, historical approach, alienation and some yet to be discovered)

68

What needs to be alienated and how it depends on the demand of the play and these demands are decided by the theatre.

69

Literature in terms of theatre can be or can’t be a success but it always leads to transformation of society which leads to improvement of humankind.

70

Exposition of story and its communication through alienation is of main importance in the theatre. All the people (stage designer, actor, costumers etc.) join their art for the performance in theatre.

71

When songs and music is played the actors emphasize on gestures and this part is different from the rest of the text as several things happen simultaneously for e.g. light changing, title inserting. Music discharges emotions to audience. Music forms variety in entertainment.

72

Stage designer doesn’t have to built complete locality but presenting hints of the place also works

73

Choreography - elegant movement, graceful grouping and inventing miming.

Stylization should not remove natural elements but heighten it.

Gestures in the play cannot be portrayed without choreography.

75

Entertainment comes with sensuousness and humor.

76

The play delivered to the audience is infused with gestures.

77

Representation is always secondary to what is represented in society and pleasure felt in theatre is also higher than the pleasure felt in real life. Theatre thus questions the life in society that is treated as imperfect and provisional and leaves a lasting impact on audience even after they are gone. Theatre must allow audience to enjoy theatre as entertainment; theatre produces lives in the simplest way.

Deepali Yadav

 Student at Kamala Nehru College (DU)

Contact me @ deepaliyadav2896@gmail.com

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