Thoughts on Epic Theater

In an attempt to archive some academic papers I've written over the past few years (relying on the hard drives of sometimes faulty PCs has left me tired and frustrated), I will be uploading some of my old work to this blog over the next few weeks.

In Illuminations, a collection of Walter Benjamin's critical works, his essay entitled “What is Epic Theater?” raises some interesting and occasionally rhetorical questions on the importance of an actor and any given live performance. In describing epic theater, a term not founded but rather brought to the forefront by German playwright Bertolt Brecht, Benjamin lists several sections which make up his proposed description – The Relaxed Audience, The Plot, The Untragic Hero, The Interruption, The Quotable Gesture, The Didactic Play, The Actor, and Theater on a Dais. On the role of the actor, Benjamin informatively writes, “an actor should reserve for himself the possibility of stepping out of character artistically. At the proper moment he should insist on portraying a man who reflects about his part.” (Benjamin 153). Going by this understanding, the actor must internally admit (by externally emoting) that the performance he is currently giving is nothing more than just that: a performance. This choice, if executed pompously, can be considered flashy and annoyingly self-aware – acting that draws attention to itself is rarely considered necessary upstaging. The performance breaks a shared reality, a common understanding between the roles of actor and audience, to shed light on the personal experience between the thespian and the part he is playing. This emphasizes the uniqueness of the craft and the quasi-political aspects of the epic theater as a whole. Instead of falling for the entertainment, we are encouraged to keep up with the message that the theater is a public sphere, a global village designed to ignite intelligent questioning and debate. “It demonstrates only the philosophic sophistication of the author who, in writing plays, always remembers that in the end the world may turn out to be a theater.” (Benjamin 153).

      This sense of awareness is in fact critical to the success of epic theater. Benjamins describes that most plots used in the outlet are overtly familiar as to not distract the viewers from the real task at hand (if patrons are caught up with the story, they become less aware that they are sitting in the theater viewing one). The nuts and bolts of the production are emphasized, for better or for worse, over the playwright's narrative. “Then what purpose do I serve”, an actor with particularly low self-esteem may ask. “Why memorize lines and blocking when the point of my performance is to draw attention to the fact that I am an actor acting?” Of course the actor has an important role in epic theater but it is through being a vessel rather than a star.

      This is far removed from the beliefs possessed by various famed schools of acting and acting teachers who see performance and characterization as being two sides of the same coin. In her book Respect for Acting, the legendary acting teacher Uta Hagen asked, “what can you do for yourself with that big, gaping hole out there which is supposed to be the fourth wall of your set? You can complete it in your imagination as part of your room or landscape. I know that is easier said than done.” (Hagen 106-107). With Hagen's approach, you are to be aware of your real life physical surroundings (i.e. if you walk ten feet forward, you will drop off the stage and fall flat onto your face), but unaware of the spectators quietly observing you out there in the dark. Self-awareness is present in both acting techniques but perhaps more so in the epic theater.

      By looking at the acting style and requirements of a performer in epic theater, Benjamin is able to piece together its goals and intentions (with “goal” and “intentions” being the two operative words). It depends on interruptions, a dramatic shift in the action, that abnormally calls attention to itself. It isn't preaching intent as much as it is consciously noting it. One good example of epic theater crafted in the not-so-distant past is Stephen Schwartz's Broadway musical from the 1970s, Pippin. The show began with the actors in contemporary street clothes walking on stage and changing into their olden times, pre-Crusades costumes, going along with Brecht's notion of the “let's put on a show” theatrical collaboration. Most of the characters in the show are nameless, listed merely as players (not chorus, ensemble members, or company), indicating that not only will the cast be playing multiple roles but that their characters' titles are nameless, a strict divide between illusion and the actual actors themselves; they are out create an overall mood. This serves as a constant subconscious interruption throughout the evening and is in line with what Benjamin notes is “the task of epic theater according to Brecht.....not so much the development of actions as the representation of conditions.”