Theatre without Actors: Brecht’s Dilemma

The present study aims at examining the extent of Brecht’s accomplishment in proposing theatre which was to contrast with the realistic drama that he fervently opposed. Believing that the spectator should not identify emotionally with the action, Brecht intended to create a different effect on the audience by developing a series of anti-illusive techniques to jar the audience out of the story. Such techniques included flooding the stage with harsh white light, reducing the stage property to the minimum, using episodic montage, interrupting the action at key moments, and employing placards and songs. His actors merely demonstrated the actions of the characters without identifying with their roles, thus emboldening the fine line between illusion and reality. Brecht expected the audience to realize that the action was only a construction but not reality. However, based on library findings, the present research demonstrates that his theory was contradictory in practice, for the very dramatic tradition which makes use of narrative diegesis, is basically anti-theatrical inasmuch as it emphasizes contemplation and analysis on the part of the audience while distancing his actors from their roles in an effort to prevent them from relating to the audience. Brecht wanted his audience to interrogate, intervene, and change things, while adversely, he limited both the function of the actor and the interaction between the audience and the actor. The present study argues that Brecht s theatre did not achieve its aim and was in fact not really different from the realistic drama he so ardently criticized.