Introduction to Brecht

Today we were first introduced to Brecht and his work, ideologies and theories. Jack started off by explaining that Brecht did not believe in an idle audience, that he believed an audience should be active and forced to be involved in any piece of theatre they see immersing them in their theatrical world. We then moved on to look at Brecht's Verfremdungseffekt (or V-effekt) which would translate as distancing effect or estrangement effect, as it is often translated. We saw how this can lead people to think about their own moral compass and can draw people further into the theatrical world that they're experiencing, again not allowing them to become lazy as an audience but forcing them to become involved. We also saw how Brecht openly invites the audience to see scene changes, costume changes, character changes and manual operations. He also doesn't believe in using props rather objects that subscribe to this V-effekt From his introduction I can tell that, although I will enjoy performing Brecht, I will not agree with his theatrical philosophy, as I believe that you should go to the theatre to be entertained, to see realism and that you are absorbed by the realism of a scene not the surrealism and also believe that set, lighting and props integral for making a piece look professional rather than like a GCSE-style performance which I worry that this may end up being.