Bertolt Brecht The Caucasian Chalk Circle
BERTOLT BRECHT - "THE CAUCASIAN CHALK CIRCLE"Bertolt Brecht (1898-1956) a non-conformist German playwright, was the most important single influence in the development of epic theatre. His political beliefs and experiences were his motivation to try to change the world through drama. Through the theatre he created he made people realise the wrong doings of the society in which they lived. Brecht was a pacifist and, therefore, wrote a number of plays with strong political messages to intellectually stimulate and politically motivate his audiences. Brecht's plays were originally rejected by the society in which he lived because they were unconventional and against the ideological beliefs that his society embraced. In his work, Brecht explored themes related to war, ownership, sacrifice, the notion of justice and the theme of the inequalities produced by 'superior' people in power over the 'inferior' lower class. He challenged society's opinion of the oppressed. Brecht tried to teach his audiences not to accept the world as they found it. He also tried to teach his actors the same thing."... above all s/he [actor of Brechtian theatre] must be aware of the theme with which the play is concerned."
158)In his writing, Brecht uses metaphors and similes to compare one thing to another. It serves to reinforce the notion that people can not be judged by their class and that to give preferential treatment to wealthy people or to discriminate against poor people should not be accepted or tolerated by our society. This was shock-making device Brecht used so that the audience remained aware that they were in a theatre. His characters were not portrayed as people. One centers around AZDAK, a drunken peasant, who is put into the powerful role of judge. Vocal work in Brecht's plays is a combination of realistic speech and theatrical, detached, or even dehumanised speech. At the beginning of the extract from the play, the singer and chorus introduce AZDAK and give the audience a short background on the type of person he is and what his role is in society. This was the most important technique that Brecht used in his epic theatre - a technique that he called alienation.
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