Today in our HL class we explored we explored the theatrical style of Bertolt Brecht. It looks into reminding the audience that they are actually watching a play. This is done through devices such as:
- Breaking the fourth wall
- Cross cutting (non liner structure)
- Flashbacks (non liner structure)
- Breaking and getting back into character
- Making corrections as you go along
I really like the way we can use this style to make a serious topic quite humorous and give the audience that contrast. I think it also gives a lot of scope for us to use in terms of theatrical devices because it’s not meant to be naturalistic. Brecht wants to ensure that the audience can’t relate to the play and I think this could be used for an abstract piece, which could be done with elements of Berkoff’s non naturalistic style also.
An idea I had was potentially doing a play backwards, as Brecht makes his actors learn their lines backwards. It could be maybe doing a sequence and then reverse doing it, but in regards to a plot or something like that.
