Bertolt Brecht

Bertolt Brecht (1898–1956) was a German playwright, poet, and theatre director who developed epic theatre, a style designed to prompt critical thought rather than emotional absorption.

Epic theatre: A theatre form that presents social conditions for critical examination rather than encouraging emotional absorption. Brecht developed this approach to make audiences examine how society could be changed.
The Threepenny Opera: A 1928 play with music by Kurt Weill, adapting John Gay’s The Beggar’s Opera into a satire of bourgeois society. Its songs and criminal underworld helped establish Brecht’s international reputation.
Augsburg: A city in Bavaria, Germany, where Bertolt Brecht was born in 1898. Brecht’s upbringing in Augsburg preceded his move into Munich’s theatrical world.
Helene Weigel: An Austrian actress and theatre director who was a central interpreter of Brecht’s plays and co-founded the Berliner Ensemble. Her performances established influential interpretations of roles such as Mother Courage.
Theatre of the Oppressed: A participatory theatre practice developed by Augusto Boal to help people rehearse responses to oppression. Boal adapted Brechtian critical distance into theatre that invites audiences to intervene.
Verfremdungseffekt: A theatrical effect that makes familiar events appear strange so audiences can examine them critically. This signature device interrupts immersion in Brecht’s productions.
Mother Courage and Her Children: A play following a canteen woman who tries to profit from the Thirty Years’ War while losing her children. The play examines how war sustains itself through the people who depend on it.
Munich: A city in southern Germany where Brecht began his career as a playwright and theatre critic. Brecht’s first major theatrical work took shape in Munich after the First World War.
Elisabeth Hauptmann: A German writer and translator who collaborated closely with Brecht on plays including The Threepenny Opera. Her contributions to Brecht’s writing and adaptation have often been obscured by his authorship.
Documentary theatre: A form of theatre that builds performances from documents, testimony, and other factual materials. Brecht’s use of projected texts and social evidence helped open paths for politically documentary staging.

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