Brecht and Marxism

Brecht's desire and need to change the world be it society or theatre found its natural home in his belief in Marxism. Once he'd realized that the teachings of Karl Marx were the one true way forward, he allowed those teachings to infiltrate all areas of his work. The challenge of Marxism to question the accepted "truths" that society took for granted and to revolutionize the way people thought about the world and specifically society chimed with Brecht's desire to challenge the way that theatre saw itself in the early part of the twentieth century. His creation of the ensemble embodies the Marxist idea of a collective striving and fighting together for the good whole - everyone's own ego and personal need to "stand out" is subsumed into the good of the group striving together for the good of the play. Brecht loved to contradict. Marx and his beliefs was a way in which Brecht could explore that. Be it contradicting, accepted political ideas in his plays, or be it contradicting accepting acting methods in his direction of his actors, Brecht intellectually strived to forge a new way of seeing both the world and the theatre.

Brecht also realized that once change has begun, the need to explore and question and excavate never ends. This creates a very active and "alive" feeling in a rehearsal room or on a stage, and the reports of how Brecht worked with his actors bears this out. Brecht's desire for inquiry and for his need for his actors to have inquiring minds often manifested itself in a desire for inquiring about history. Marxism played a pivotal part in such inquiries - the more aware his actors were of what his theatre was about the more he knew the process would be fruitful. In an unashamedly political play such as Mother Courage or The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui, a vital expose and critique of Hitler and his methods, Brecht wanted his actors to not shirk from the idea log inherent in the work. The actors' shared political vision with their playwright would give the theatre of the Berlin Ensemble its undeniable power.