Brecht & Barker

The similarities between Brecht’s model of Epic theatre and Howard Barker’s theatre of catastophe are striking.

Andrew Eglinton
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I was recently going back over some texts on Brecht’s model of Epic theatre and was also reading Howard Barker’s Arguments for a Theatre and in these two passages the similarities are striking. If you are not familiar with the work of Howard Barker, I strongly recommend reading this available passage from his 6-hour epic The Ecstatic Bible and I would also recommend the other texts referenced here too.

From Brecht on Theatre (ed. John Willett, 1974 Methuen: London, p37)

DRAMATIC THEATRE	EPIC THEATRE
plot	narrative
implicates the spectator in a stage situation	turns the spectator into an observer
wears down his capacity for action	arouses his capacity for action
provides him with sensations	forces him to take decisions
experience	picture of the world
the spectator is involved in something	he is made to face something
suggestion	argument
instinctive feelings are preserved	brought to the point of recognition
the spectator is in the thick of it, shares the experience	the spectator stands outside, studies
the human being is taken for granted	the human being is the object of the enquiry
he is unalterable	he is alterable and able to alter
eyes on the finish	eyes on the course
one scene makes another	each scene for itself
growth	montage
linear development	in curves
evolutionary determinism	jumps
man as a fixed point	man as a process
thought determines being	social being determines thought
feeling	reason

From Arguments For a Theatre (Howard Barker, 1989 Manchester University Press: Manchester, p71)

HUMANIST THEATRE	CATASTOPHIC THEATRE
We all really agree.	We only sometimes agree.
When we laugh we are together.	Laughter conceals fear.
Art must be understood.	Art is a problem of understanding.
Wit greases the message.	There is no message.
The actor is a man/woman not	The actor is different in kind.
unlike the author.
The production must be clear.	The audience cannot grasp
	everything; nor could the author.
We celebrate our unity.	We quarrel to love.
The critic is already	The critic must suffer like
The message is important.	The play is important.
The audience is educated	The audience is divided
and goes home	and goes home
happy	disturbed
or	or
fortified.	amazed.