Book contents
- Bertolt Brecht in Context
- Bertolt Brecht in Context
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Figure
- Notes on Contributors
- Chronology
- Abbreviations
- Preface
- A Note on Brecht in English
- Introduction
- Part I Brecht’s World
- Part II Brecht’s Work
- Part III The World’s Brecht
- Chapter 23 Brecht and Feminism
- Chapter 24 Brecht in Southern Africa
- Chapter 25 Brecht in the Creation, Production, and Analysis of Opera Today
- Chapter 26 Brecht and His Biographers
- Chapter 27 Brecht Editions
- Chapter 28 Brecht and German Studies
- Chapter 29 Beginning Where Brecht Left Off: Heiner Müller and Brecht’s Legacy
- Chapter 30 Bertolt Brecht in Brazil
- Chapter 31 World Spirit versus Spirit of the Age: Brecht’s Impact and Influence on East German Literature and Culture
- Chapter 32 Brecht in Fiction
- Chapter 33 Brecht and Contemporary Experimental Theater
- Chapter 34 Brecht and US Actor Training
- Chapter 35 Brecht and Transcultural Theater
- Chapter 36 Thinking Brecht in(to) the University
- Chapter 37 “Shrunk in Translation” or: The (Ir)resistible Rise of the Old Traduttore/Traditore Tradition …
- Concise Bibliography
- Index
Chapter 33 - Brecht and Contemporary Experimental Theater
from Part III - The World’s Brecht
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 28 May 2021
- Bertolt Brecht in Context
- Bertolt Brecht in Context
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Figure
- Notes on Contributors
- Chronology
- Abbreviations
- Preface
- A Note on Brecht in English
- Introduction
- Part I Brecht’s World
- Part II Brecht’s Work
- Part III The World’s Brecht
- Chapter 23 Brecht and Feminism
- Chapter 24 Brecht in Southern Africa
- Chapter 25 Brecht in the Creation, Production, and Analysis of Opera Today
- Chapter 26 Brecht and His Biographers
- Chapter 27 Brecht Editions
- Chapter 28 Brecht and German Studies
- Chapter 29 Beginning Where Brecht Left Off: Heiner Müller and Brecht’s Legacy
- Chapter 30 Bertolt Brecht in Brazil
- Chapter 31 World Spirit versus Spirit of the Age: Brecht’s Impact and Influence on East German Literature and Culture
- Chapter 32 Brecht in Fiction
- Chapter 33 Brecht and Contemporary Experimental Theater
- Chapter 34 Brecht and US Actor Training
- Chapter 35 Brecht and Transcultural Theater
- Chapter 36 Thinking Brecht in(to) the University
- Chapter 37 “Shrunk in Translation” or: The (Ir)resistible Rise of the Old Traduttore/Traditore Tradition …
- Concise Bibliography
- Index
Summary
This article explores Bertolt Brecht’s significance for the most advanced forms of contemporary experimental and avant-garde theater.Brecht is one of the most popular and most-produced playwrights world-wide, and certainly in Germany; however many mainstream productions tend to deprive his work of its radical political and aesthetic edge.Nevertheless, contemporary avant-garde and experimental theaterwould be fundamentally unthinkable without Brecht, and it is particularly indebted to the most radical phase of Brecht’s career, when he and his team were working on learning plays (Lehrstücke) in the late 1920s and early 1930s during the final years of the Weimar Republic. Brecht’s conception of a separation of the elements, of putting mechanisms of power clearly on display, and of creating collective agency that, via script-based theater, tendentially removed power from the hands of writers and directors, are fundamental building blocks of contemporary experimental theater. The article explores such forms and their impact on the basis of experimental work by Robert Wilson, Wanda Golonka, and She She Pop.
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- Bertolt Brecht in Context , pp. 282 - 290Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2021