Gestus-
- Brecht's principle concern is to put over a message in such a way that the audience can be in no doubt as to the intentions of the performance.
- An audience should be able to understand each moment by looking at the stage picture.
- Brecht was influenced by film and photography.
- The language in facial expression and gesture is very important.
Gestus is the combination of gesture, facial expression, body language and vocal tone deliberately used to create and communicate a meaning to the audience. It shows the stage picture but also it sums up societies opinion on the situation shown through the lens of what it's like to be rich or poor. It is used to provoke debate and educate the audience.
Gestus exercises-
We began with pair work across the space from each other trying to relate a nursery rhyme, we did it again over acting the words adding gestures and enunciating to create an unnaturalistic performance to get the message across. What I learnt from this was that gestures and images get messages across better than words because words can't always be heard but an image is much louder and clearer than any word. This is something I can consider for my political protest as to get the message across we should use powerful images more than lots of dialogue which wouldn't be understood as clearly.
As an exercise in class we created 4 rich characters-
- Raised nose stuck out and clenched bum (Petunia)
- Puffed out chest chin pulled back glass of champagne (Xavier)
- Cigar in hand lead with the belly made his own company (Phil)
- Hand bag in one hand, lap dog in the other, lead with the nose (Virginia)
And 4 poor characters-
- Lad, big expressions can of Strongbow in hand lead with pelvis (Gazza)
- Pregnant mum, hand on stomach one hand smoking a cigarette, has 7 kids already (Pat)
- (Beggar) knees turned in, doubled over hands out begging for money.
- (Druggie) occasionally twitches, fast moving, knees turned in face moving lots.
I found this exercise very fun and efficient because you could clearly see the different between the eight archetypes when people were creating them and even when there was a mixture of the different types of people you could still identify who was who. It was also fun to give each new character names and create a memorable character I could go back to in the future. When doing this exercise I could feel an emotional change along with a physical change which came with the character so when I was "Gazza" I was louder and I felt more confident than when I was a rich character like "Virginia" who I felt carried more judgement, this shows how we hold stereotypes to different people but also was exciting to explore those different sides of myself as those characters.
Verfremdungseffekt/ distancing effect-
Alienating the audience from the performance so they don't build an emotional connection and get caught up in whats happening, by stopping this you keep the audience more allert and engaged.
Ways to do distancing effect
-Narration to remind the audience they are watching a play
The narration might tell them what's going to happen making them less emotionally attached to the scene, Spoilers will ruin the outcome so you focus on the characters.
-Breaking out of character reminding it’s a play so you don’t become emotionally invested in the character
Saying your emotions from a third person perspective, Breaking the fourth wall and talking to the audience directly
-Using placards or signs
-Contradictions and juxtaposition having a love scene with images of war behind
-Cross sex casting with no comment plus split rolling to keep the character representational instead of truthful and realistic and inhibits emotional attachment to the audience
-Minimal set costumes and props to keep it realistic but all very realistic and used to be authentic
-Lighting- same throughout really bright and illuminating to imitate the truth
Spass-
Spass means 'Fun', it is adding comedy into a performance to make the audience laugh as this causes them to think about what they are laughing about and pay more attention. The issues in Brechtian plays are commonly very serious so adding comedy can be a powerful tool.
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