The Modern Theatre Is The Epic Theatre
"The Modern Theatre is the Epic Theatre" is a theoretical work by the twentieth-century German theatre practitioner Bertolt Brecht. It was composed in 1930 as a set of notes to accompany his opera Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny. In it, he outlines his ideas for a 'refunctioning' of the theatre, his principle of the 'separation of the elements' (conceived in opposition to Wagner's principle of the 'integrated work of art'), and the "shifts of accent" involved in the move from traditional 'dramatic' theatre to his own 'epic' theatre. It also contains one of the earliest formulations of 'Gestus'.
Read more about The Modern Theatre Is The Epic Theatre: See Also
Famous quotes containing the words modern, theatre and/or epic:
“Not “Seeing is Believing” you ninny, but “Believing is Seeing.” For modern art has become completely literary: the paintings and other works exist only to illustrate the text.”
—Tom Wolfe (b. 1931)
“The poem of the mind in the act of finding
What will suffice. It has not always had
To find: the scene was set; it repeated what
Was in the script.
Then the theatre was changed
To something else. Its past was a souvenir.”
—Wallace Stevens (1879–1955)
“Primitive times are lyrical, ancient times epical, modern times dramatic. The ode sings of eternity, the epic imparts solemnity to history, the drama depicts life. The characteristic of the first poetry is ingeniousness, of the second, simplicity, of the third, truth.”
—Victor Hugo (1802–1885)