BRECHT FACT FILE RESEARCH

Bertolt BRECHT

Born: 11 February, 1898-1956
Birthplace: Augsburg, Germany
Occupation: Poet and Dramatist
Education: He studied sciences, medicine and literature at the Ludwig-Maximilians-University in Munich, however he had to take a break in his studies to join the army.
Brecht was almost expelled from school in 1915 for writing an essay in response to "Dulce et decorum est pro patria mori" from the Roman poet Horace, calling it Zweckpropaganda (cheap propaganda for a specific purpose)

• Early in his life, Brecht's home life was comfortably middle class, despite what his occasional attempt to claim peasant origins implied. 
• In the 1920s, Brecht met his second wife Helene Weigel in Berlin. 
• Brecht worked as a medic in the first world war in a medical hospital
• Married multiple times but has also has several mistresses (including Carola Neher and Helene Weigel)
• He was forced to flee Nazi Germany after the Reichstag fire and went to Prague, Vienna, Switzerland and Denmark. The Nazis prohibited the playing of some of his works, and arrested some of his friends.

EPIC THEATRE

Epic theatre was a kind of  Theatre invented by Bertolt Brecht. Epic theatre was different to dramatic theatre. In dramatic theatre (naturalistic), the audience cared about the life of the characters on stage. They are cathartic. Brecht was against cathartic theatre as he believed if an audience got too emotionally involved, they wouldn't be able to think and judge as effectively. He wanted them to keep them from emotional judgement so they could make rational judgements about any social comment or issue raised in his plays. He used different methods such as breaking the fourth wall and the verfremdungseffekt.

Here are some differences between Epic Theatre and Dramatic Theatre:

• Dramatic theatre implicates the spectator in a stage situation, but Epic theatre turns the spectator into an observer, so they are involved in the performance.
• Dramatic theatre is a mere suggestion, Epic theatre is an argument.
• In dramatic theatre, the character is unalterable however in epic theatre, the character is alterable and able to alter. 
• Dramatic theatre shows growth, but epic theatre shows a montage