A Very Brechtian Bottom

When studying drama one theatrical concept which intrigued me was that of Bertolt Brecht and his theories on ‘alienation techniques’. 

Brecht felt that if people became too emotionally involved in a story then they were more likely to simply ride that wave of emotion and step away from it when the play ended. This cathartic experience allowed them to distance themselves from the the subject of the play, the actions of the characters and their consequences. Instead, he wanted the audience to learn something from watching a performance, remember it and even question it. 

So in the writing and staging of his plays Brecht employed various techniques in order to ‘alienate’ the spectator from the story. These included bright lights, loud noises, signs appearing before each scene explaining what was going to happen or actors directly speaking to the audience. Anything to essentially remove the surprise and to remind people that this was a play and not real life.

But was this 'Dialectical Theatre', or 'Epic Form' as it was sometimes called, an original idea? Brecht himself sites many theatrical styles as inspiration as far back as Greek Tragedy and its chorus. But I think someone got there before him. During my current re-reading of ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream’ it suddenly stuck me that Shakespeare had already coined the theory centuries ahead of Brecht. 

At the start of Act 3, when the cast of mechanicals voice their concerns regarding the drawing swords and killing on stage as being something the ladies “cannot abide”, Bottom suggests: 

“I have a device to make all well.
Write me a prologue; and let the prologue seem to
say, we will do no harm with our swords, and that
Pyramus is not killed indeed; and, for the more
better assurance, tell them that I, Pyramus, am not
Pyramus, but Bottom the weaver: this will put them
out of fear."

And in fact before their performance in Act 5 Quince introduces all the characters and gives us a blow by blow synopsis of the play before even a word is spoken. Not only that but Bottom also breaks the barrier between actor and audience still further by discussing the play directly with Theasus.

I'm not sure if Brecht would be pleased to know that a group Athenaian workmen had conceived alienation before him, but I’m positive Bottom would be proud to know that he was the first Thespian whose 'form' was considered 'epic’.

-