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Brechtian Terms
Quiz: March 14, 2003 

Epic Theater: Epic theater was developed in the 1920s by Erwin Piscator and Bertolt Brecht.  Epic theater was anti-realist and anti-naturalist.  Piscator and Brecht saw realistic representation as necessarily biased, but inadequate for conveying the reality of social issues.  In place of realism, then, epic theater presented a series, or montage, of multimedia episodes [Piscator and Brecht often used films and other projections in their productions] that were designed to present social issues by appealing to the audience’s reason rather than to its emotions.  Actors in the epic theater were there not to “act” but to demonstrate social reality and to raise questions about certain political and social issues.  The purpose of epic theater was to provoke the audience into questioning the basis of their own social reality by alienating them from what was familiar (see “Alienation Effect”).  Later in his career, Brecht would come to call his version of epic theater “dialectic theater” since the meaning of his plays was produced by the dialectic between the empathy of the audience and the demonstration of the actors. 

Alienation Effect: From the German word verfremdungseffekt.  Epic theater used various techniques to destroy theatrical illusion and promote in the audience a critical attitude toward what was happening on stage.  This effect was often achieved by putting familiar things in unfamiliar settings.  Audiences were supposed to be “alienated” by theatrical techniques such as the use of placards, masks, songs that deliberately interrupted the flow of the play, documentary films, cartoons, visible lighting sources, etc.  Brecht wanted to alienate his audience because, “A representation that alienates is one which allows us to recognize its subject, but at the same time makes it seem unfamiliar.”  The alienation effect is often referred to as the “A-effect” or the “V-effect.” 

Modellbücher: Promptbooks that Brecht kept to record—in meticulous detail—exactly how his scenes should be played.  These books contained patterns of movement and the positions of actors, along with hundreds of documentary photos and voluminous director’s commentary.  For Brecht, each gesture and word was a public political act, and each gesture and word had to be precise and perfect in order to produce the desired effect on the audience. 

Berliner Ensemble: The Berliner Ensemble was an acting troupe founded by Brecht in 1949, when he returned to Berlin after his wartime exile.  The ensemble was dedicated to experimenting with Brechtian theatrical practice.