Brecht's Concept of Gestus

Literature Review
Much has been written on the subject of Bertolt Brecht's alienation effect. My paper will discuss one aspect of this effect: Brecht's concept of "Gestus." It is my contention that the acting techniques of silent film star Charlie Chaplin greatly influenced Brecht's development of Gestus. This concept, and its practical application in Brecht's Epic Theatre, has been discussed by Brechtian scholars Martin Esslin, John Rouse, and Carl Weber. Although each author has noted Chaplin's seminal influence, an in depth analysis of his acting techniques does not seem to have been undertaken. Consequently, I would like to explore Chaplin's mimetic performance style, examining its relationship to Brecht's concept of Gestus.
Martin Esslin, in his article entitled, "Some Reflections on Brecht and Acting," outlines several components of Brecht's acting theories. Esslin describes the attributes of three types of acting practiced in German theatre during the 1920's: The artificial, highly declamatory style of the Hoftheatre, the naturalistic acting style used in the plays of Strinberg and Ibsen, and the anti-naturalistic performance style called expressionism. Esslin stresses that Brecht was repulsed by the emotional intensity of these three types of acting. Brecht asserted that the audience member, empathetically caught up in this intensity, could not possibly think critically about the play's situations and characters.
According to Esslin, Brecht loved the unrehearsed, improvised performance style of Germany's popular theatre. This style, which had a presentational quality, emphasized the performer's virtuosity rather than the emotional depth of his/her character. Esslin explains this quality by suggesting that the actor is actually saying: ". . . Look at me, this is what I am showing you . . . I am exhibiting something to you, demonstrating something that I can do well" (138). Brecht's term, Gestus des Zeigens, refers to this presentational aspect of performance. This technique serves two functions: It enabled the performer to achieve critical distance from his/her character, and it provided "the spectator with the pleasure of admiring a special skill"(138). Esslin asserts that Charlie Chaplin was Brecht's favorite actor. According to Brecht, Chaplin's approach was presentational. When the actor acts with the awareness of being on display, he/she can critically analyze the actions of the character being presented. Esslin emphasizes that the idea of non-identification with a character is not a new concept. East Asian, Indian, and Elizabethan acting styles are also presentational, as opposed to naturalistic, in approach.
According to Esslin, there is no need to use particular acting style to create emotional distance. This distance can best be achieved through "the staging, the direction, the design, and the interpretations of lines" (144), asserts Esslin. The unsavory characteristics of Moliere's imaginary invalid, or Shakespeare's Othello are obvious to the audience. Empathetic distance occurs in reaction to the negative qualities of the character.
John Rouse, in his article entitled "Brecht and the Contradictory Actor," discusses the relationship between Bertolt Brecht's acting theories and their practical application in theatrical production. He begins with the assertion that theatre critics absolutize Brecht's acting theories by interpreting them as an "inviolate" (25 ). Furthermore, Rouse contends, critics should avoid comparing Brecht's acting theories with that of Stanislavski's. They do not make for logical comparisons, Rouse claims, because of the differences in their respective approaches. Unlike Stanislavski, who uses a psychologically-based acting method, Brecht encourages his actors to interpret the text sociologically, to examine the events that happen between the characters rather than developing the interiority of a given character as Stanislavski instructs his actors to do.
Rouse emphasizes that the Short Organon is not Brecht's last word on theatre and acting, rather, it summarizes "his thinking about his theatre work up to around 1947" (25). Brecht's work the Berliner Ensemble resulted in a clarification and expansion of these original ideas. As the ensemble's director and dramaturg, Brecht was able to practically implement his acting theories.
Rouse offers an overview of the discourse that occurred between Brecht and the Berliner ensemble, a discourse that helped to generate an interpretational method that Brecht refers to as "the building up of the fable." The creation of the fable involves the telling the play's story. This process begins in the pre-rehearsal stage of production. The text is treated as a historical document. After extensive research, it is rewritten into single sentences that describe the play's action. Blocking during this phase serves two functions: To illustrate the separate interactions between the play's characters, and to study the positioning of one character in relation to another. The actors were instructed to both demonstrate, and comment on, the character's behavior. Through a process of gestural elaboration, the actor learned the character's physical gestus. Rouse states that gestus consists of "an elaborated physicality or stylization, an exaggeration of gesture, intonation and tempo" (34).
Citing an example from the Berliner Ensemble's production of Mother Courage and Her Children, Rouse describes Helen Weigel's silent scream. Rouse states that this gesture moved from a depiction of grief, to a demonstration of grief. Such demonstrations were received by the audience in a de-familiarized way.
Rouse depicts three overlapping phases through which the actor learns to elaborate the character's gestures. In the first phase, the actor must react, rather than act. In phase two, the actor actually identifies with the character. The third phase occurs when they "structure the final compositions of gesture and positions that will elaborate the fable concretely in performance"(40).
Carl Weber's article discusses Brecht's concept of Gestus and its relationship to the American performance tradition. Weber begins his discussion with a definition of Gestus as it evolved over a nine-year period. As Weber understands it, Gestus includes, "The total process, the 'ensemble' of all physical behavior the actor displays when showing us a 'character' on stage" (179). Some of Brecht's most significant ideas about acting were shaped by watching Charlie Chaplin's silent films. This influence, says Brecht's former assistant, Carl Weber, contributed much toward Brecht's development of a gestic acting approach.
No doubt, the style of acting Brecht discovered in American
silent films have a strong and formative influence on the concept
of gestus he developed in the twenties and early thirties. He
kept naming Chaplin as the foremost model for the style of
acting he desired for his Epic and later, Dialectic, theatre. (55-6)
According to Weber, "Chaplin's character seems to have been the first complete achievement of gestus that Brecht observed" (180).
Weber cites other silent film stars Brecht admired, and lists several performances Brecht saw in New York that he was impressed with. Brecht liked the works of Clifford Odette, and Rouben Mamoulian's Porgy and Bess, states Weber. In addition to this, Brecht loved to watch gangster movies. According to Weber, "It was the quotability of the performances he saw there [in America] that corresponded to Brecht's concept of gestus" (182).
Weber presents an overview of Brecht's experiences as a German exile in California during the 1940's. According to Weber, Brecht was not content with the way his plays were acted in America. This is evidenced by comments he made about a New York production of his play The Mother, explains Weber. Some of the theatrical techniques used in Broadway and Hollywood productions represented ". . . the opposite of what gestus was meant to achieve," says Weber (182). Brecht "eventually arrived at the opinion" (183) that Broadway musicals were the best representation of American theatrical traditions. Weber mentions that Brecht tried to write for Broadway, but only one play, Webster's Duchess of Malfi, was ever produced. The author then named several Broadway musicals that Brecht enjoyed and wrote about.
Weber ends his article by summing up the American performance techniques that Brecht rejected, and those that he later drew from in his own productions. The productions that most utilized vaudeville and silent film performance techniques were of most interest to Brecht, states Weber.
Each of these three authors, all recognized Brechtian scholars, discuss Brecht's concept of gestus in detail. Esslin's descriptions of Germany's legitimate and popular theatre provide the ground work for discussing Brecht's theories. The questions Esslin raises regarding the practical need for a specific acting method to achieve critical distance are both surprising and compelling. These issues can be raised in my own research. I will also draw on information provided in Esslin's book entitled: Brecht: The Man and His Work.
In Rouse's article, Brecht's concept of gestus is never questioned as a viable acting method. Rather, it is discussed in relation to Brecht's practical use of it. Rouse's article begins with a clear explanation of Brecht's ideas about acting. Straight forward descriptions of Brecht's work with actors is rare, Rouse contends. Since Brecht's ideas are usually discussed without practical illustration, an accurate conceptualization is difficult. I will rely on these illustrations to describe the relationship between gestus and Charlie Chaplin's acting style in silent film.
The information provided in Carl Weber's article helps to explain Brecht's fascination with vaudeville and silent film. His statements regarding Chaplin's influence on the concept of gestus are central to my argument. My paper will use his contentions as a springboard in which to analyze Charlie Chaplin's acting style. In my research, I have found only one article that deals specifically with Chaplin and Brecht. This paper was written in Polish. My paper will provide detailed commentary on the performance styles that most influenced these two artists. This will provide for interesting comparisons because Brecht and Chaplin were age peers. They were both profoundly influenced by the performance styles of the popular theatre, including vaudeville, slap stick, and cabaret.
Brecht's interest in Chaplin has been frequently noted by theatre critics, however, Chaplin mentions Brecht only rarely, and then quite briefly. Because of this fact, I will be forced to analyze their relationship exclusively through Brecht's eyes. To explain Chaplin's acting style, I will refer to several books that cover these subjects extensively. Two of my sources include: Chaplin The Mirror of Opinion, by David Robinson, and Chaplin: Last of the Clowns, by Parker Tyler.
Works Cited
Esslin, Martin. "Some Reflections on Brecht and Acting." Gestus. Dover: 1987.
Rouse, John. "Brecht and the Contradictory Actor." Theatre Journal. U of Michigan P.: 1984.
Weber, Carl. "Brecht's Concept of Gestus and the American Performance Tradition." Gestus,
Dover: 1987.