Woyzeck Flashcards
What are Brecht’s main aims for theatre?
Brecht did not want an audience to sit passively
watching the performance, but wanted to
provoke them into questioning the actions on
stage.
He believe that this was easier for an audience
to do if they were emotionally distanced from
the action and characters onstage.
What is a gestic headline?
A Gestic Headline is like a title for your scene.
It might sum up the unfair attitude that you are presenting in the scene, be controversial or make an audience question something
What are Character Archetypes?
Brecht believed that characters should be used to represent groups in society rather than individuals. This way, the audience will critic society rather than bad or unfortunate individuals e.g.
If a character called “John” underpays his staff members you might criticise John e.g. Why is he so greedy? Why does he think this behaviour is acceptable? What has his upbringing been like to make him so ignorant to others needs? We will leave the theatre thinking how terrible make believe John is and how unfortunate it is for his pretend staff. We will think about how lucky we are that John isn’t real.
However, if “The Boss” underpays his staff you criticise society as a whole e.g. Why are the leaders of big businesses inherently greedy? What about society leads us to believe that it is acceptable for a few people to hold most of the worlds wealth? Why does the government not step in to prevent this?
What about capitalism means that those at the top ignore the needs of the masses? We leave the theatre thinking about injustice in our own society that we need to change.
What is spass?
Spass literally translates as ‘fun’ or
silliness. Brecht said that “when you are
laughing you are thinking”. This is because,
humour makes a political message more
digestible for an audience.
It can also be used to break tension to
stop an audience getting emotionally
invested in a character’s story.
