Brecht

Bertolt Brecht was born on 10 February 1898 and died on 14 August 1956. He was a German theatre
director, poet and playwright. He was one of the most influential theatre practitioners of the 20
th

Century and his techniques are still widely used today. Brecht aimed to detach the audience from
the action, to avoid an emotional response, which allowed them to take a critical view of the events
of the play, this meant that he had to move away from the empathetic style of naturalism towards
something more removed and distant . He would often use gestic characters, placards and self-
narration in his plays so as to leave the audience in no doubt as to what was going on, again allowing
them to take a critical view point. His plays often conveyed a moral to the audience and aimed to
make them change their behavior and stop injustice.
Joan Littlewood
Joan Littlewood was a left-wing English theatre director. After cutting short her training at RADA she
became interested in socialist and agitprop (agitated propaganda) theatre. She was involved in the
creation of these aims:
an awareness of the social issues of the time and in that sense, a political theatre;
a theatrical language that working people could understand, but that was capable of
reflecting, when necessary, ideas, either simple or involved, in a poetic form;
an expressive and flexible form of movement, and a high standard of skill and technique in
acting;
a high level of technical expertise capable of integrating sound and light into the
production.

Oh! What a Lovely War
Oh! What a Lovely War (1963) is a stage musical based on the major historical events of WW1. It was
devised by Joan Littlewood and her theatre workshop who adapted it from Charles Chiltons radio
play, The Long Long Trail (1961). It contains song and dance along with lots of satirical humour, but
still has a serious message about how futile war can be and how many soldiers may not even be sure
of what they are fighting for, but continue out of blind patriotism and comradeship. It is a satire
which is a genre in which the mistakes, shortcomings, immoralities and abuses of individuals are
ridiculed and put to shame to encourage improvement in. Satire is usually funny but with a moral
exposition.
Oh! What a Lovely War was written after the Second World War, but as it was still fresh in peoples
memories Littlewood decided to base the play on WW1 in order to make a comment on WW2
without offending people. The play is trying to communicate the ignorance of war for soldiers, not
knowing your enemy, and for civilians, propaganda. We did some research into the current war in
Iraq in order to relate to our audience.
Social/Cultural/Historical/Political
Historically, the play is about the major events and decisions made in WW1. Politically it highlights
the rich profits made at the expense of many lives. Culturally, this play was written in the middle of
the cold war in the 1960s. In this war the threat of weapons of mass destruction was very real and
many people questioned the idea of a war where everyone loses. This was similar to World War 1,
with its huge indiscriminate death toll for all sides. Socially, in war people who would once have
been of very different social statuses often suddenly find themselves thrust together as equals, living
in the same terrible conditions and fighting for the same cause.
Interpretation
It is appropriate to look at Oh! What a Lovely War through Brecht because its satirical humour and
important message fit in with Brechts aim to make the audience take a critical view point. It is also a
very gestic play which Brechts plays often were. We interpreted the play using Brecht, with a very
gestic and satirical style. Joan Littlewood used WW1 to show parallels with the current war (the Cold
War), so, to make this relevant to our audience we made comparisons to Iraq and Afghanistan. We
did this in order to get a message across to our modern day audience and comment on our relaxed
attitude to this current war. This was in line with Brechts aims as we were trying to inspire a change
in our audience.
Language
Language is very important in the play to portray the social class, education and background of the
characters. There is a wide range of dialects and accents used in the play, showing the wide diversity
of the characters. The accents are either written in the stage directions or implied by the dialect
written in the speech. The poor soldiers often miss letters from the start or end of words and have
poor grammar in their speech to show their lack of education e.g. ere instead of here and youre
banker instead of youre the banker. In contrast the upper classes use the correct grammar and a
wider range of vocabulary e.g. The mess was vastly relieved when they changed their name from
Wettin to Windsor. Furthermore the Germans lines are either written in German: Wie gehts? or are
written in a German accent with bad English grammar, to show that it is not their native language:
How is it vis you? This is done to make a distinction between the nationalities of the soldiers.
Characterisation
Our characters were very stereotypical and we had to use this to create gestus of the character. The
use of gestus is a very Brechtian technique as it stops the audience from becoming too sympathetic
with the characters as they are too far away from real life. It also means that there is a greater
distinction between characters of different backgrounds and social status. Gestus is also useful in
multirole, which is used frequently in Oh! What a Lovely War, as characters often only appear for 1
or 2 scenes so the audience must find out about the character quickly. We used multirole because
we were working in small groups, but Brecht used it to distance the audience from the characters as
they dont have enough time to develop emotional attachments.
An example of gestus can be seen in this section of dialogue:
Gestus Text Message to convey
Upbeat, overly posh with
received pronunciation. Strong
posture and a long slow striding
walk. One arm behind his back,
a glass of wine in the other.
Loud booming laugh that turns
heads.
Haig: Nonsense. We need only
one more big offense to break
through and win. My troops are
of fine quality, and specially
trained for this type of war.
High Ranking Officer: Very
important. Wealthy upper class
gentleman. High sense of self-
worth. Very proud, looks down
on those around him. Loves to
be the centre of attention.


Vocal Awareness, Non Verbal and Interpretation
In our interpretation we explored the thematic change at the end of act one, from comic to
dark and sinister, through the trench scene and the song Goodby-ee. The trench scene was
very heavily focused on dialect as we wanted to show the diverse backgrounds that the
soldiers came from. We all experimented with British dialects and I chose a scouse dialect. I
felt this worked for my character, first soldier, as it was clear from the text that he didnt
have received pronunciation. Other members of my group chose cockney, Scottish and
upper class accents.
Gestus was a very prominent feature of our interpretation of Goodby-ee. We remained
upbeat and over the top at the start of the song, using gestus to act out the first verse and
chorus and received pronunciation so that the audience would understand every word.
Then, as the chorus was repeated it became very sinister with the other soldiers closing in
on Brother Bertie as he tries to escape. One by one each soldier dies and Brother Bertie is
left to sing the final line alone as he steps over the bodies of the others, until he is shot and
crumples like the rest. We wanted to contrast the fantasy of the patriotic glory of war, with
the true reality of it.
Vocal Awareness Goodbye Non Verbal
Everyone sings to begin with, it
is cheerful and upbeat with
received pronunciation.
In a major key to show that
they are happy.

Just Brother Bertie - warm and
friendly.
Everyone again.
This line is slowed down and
the notes extended (Rit) to
accentuate them.
They are sung in a patronising
way to show how pathetic the
singer believes the soldiers
words are.

Just Brother Bertie - half sung,
half spoken to his wife and
children.
The happiness in his voice
juxtaposes their crying.
Received pronunciation once
again so that the audience can
hear clearly what he is saying.



Brother Bertie went away
To do his bit the other day
With a smile on his lips
And his Lieutenant's pips
Upon his shoulder bright and
gay.

As the train moved out he said,
"Remember me to all the
birds!"
And he wagg'd his paw
And went away to war
Shouting out these pathetic
words:

"Goodbye-ee, goodbye-ee,
Wipe the tear, baby dear, from
your eye-ee!
Tho' it's hard to part I know,
I'll be tickled to death to go.
Don't cry-ee, don't sigh-ee,
There's a silver lining in the sky-
ee,
Bonsoir, old thing, cheer-i-o,
chin, chin,
Nap-poo, too-dle-oo,
Goodbye-ee."

March from trenches into two
lines - military
Draw smile on face with fingers.
Hands on hips - proud
Brush shoulder
Some members of the group
form a train and some form a
family.
I become Brother Bertie -
upright, strong and proud
Wave to audience.
Thumb over shoulder.
Arms out - cant be helped.


Brother Bertie is getting
measured for his
uniform/coffin by Herbert
Henry Asquith (First World War
Prime Minister), whilst trying to
say goodbye to his wife and
child, who are crying.
He gets dragged away by other
soldiers, whilst still smiling and
waving goodbye.
They let him go and surround
him.

This next section was sung in
quiet, hushed voices to make it
sound sinister by everyone
except Brother Bertie.
This juxtaposes the first time it
sung and creates a contrast
between peoples ideals and
reality.
Sung by Brother Bertie alone in
a quivering voice, close to
tears.
Through gritted teeth as he is
wounded and in pain.
The last Goodbye-ee is not
sung as Brother Bertie has died.
Goodbye-ee, goodbye-ee,
Wipe the tear, baby dear, from
your eye-ee!
Tho' it's hard to part I know,
I'll be tickled to death to go.
Don't cry-ee, don't sigh-ee,
There's a silver lining in the sky-
ee,

Bonsoir, old thing, cheer-i-o,
chin, chin,
Nap-poo, too-dle-oo,
Goodbye-ee
The soldiers start closing in.
One of them strokes his cheek
and he recoils
He tries to force his way out
but they pull him back in.
One by one they start to die
around him, reaching out and
clawing his clothes as they fall.
He is the only one left standing.
He walks forward looking
around horrified.
He gets shot.
Falls to his knees.
He dies.

Visual/Aural/Spatial
Bretch wanted to get rid of the illusion of naturalism, with its forth wall and fake image of
life. He wanted to put his audience face to face with real life situations, facts and figures in
the hope that they would take an objective view and be inspired to make a change. He
wanted to break the forth wall and get his audience more involved in the performance
rather than having them sat in the safely of the auditorium. I achieve this we marched the
audience around with us from scene to scene. In certain scenes we had them sitting and
watching, sometimes in the middle of the performance space, so we could perform around
them, the scene in others we talked to them and in some scenes, such as the drill sergeant
scene we involved them in the action by giving them orders and treating them like
characters in the scene. We made it obvious that we were actors by multi-rolling and
changing the set ourselves.
Visually we chose to set up our scenery in the shape of a cross, with 4 walls making 4
different sections. We marched the audience round from section to section to change the
scene. Each section had a different backdrop to set the scene and minimal set.