Bertolt Brecht

Bertolt Brecht was born on the 10th of February, 1898 in Germany where he served as a medical orderly in war. Despite serving in the first world war, Brecht considered himself to be a pacifist and didn't participate in any fighting. The experiences he had at war informed his work for the rest of his life and his work is very much a protest against war. After the war, he moved to Berlin to pursue a life in theatre however in 1933 the Nazis rose to power in Germany, Brecht was 35 when he fled and became a stateless citizen; he left for the discrimination of his beliefs as a left wing intellectual. In 1941 he became a resident in the us and in 1947 he was made to go to court because America thought he was a communist due to the cold war and "red scare" at the time. He was extradited back to Europe where he died in 1956 after establishing his own theatre company - Berliner ensemble. Theatrically, his ideas were revolutionary and changed the theatrical landscape as we know it today. He was heavily influenced by Chinese theatre, film, musical theatre and comedy. Naturalistic theatre was at its height when Brecht was working and he felt as if the audience hung up their brains along with their hats when they stepped into a theatre because they forgot to think about how the stage could be a tool for political and social transformation. He decided to challenge theatre by reminded audience they were watching a play and this became known as "Epic Theatre."