Brecht created a theatre technique called Gestus which we
were studying in class, this technique involved exaggeration and specific
movements to create a "slapstick" character. During the exercise one of the characters
which we were shown to create involved walking around the space with our pelvis
pushed out and walking with our feet slightly turned out, like waddling. We all
came to the conclusion that we were portraying a lazy, tired, sluggish sort of
character. Then jack asked us to put one hand just in front of our stomach,
then in a split second it was clear to all of us that we were playing a
pregnant character.
This technique shows so much but is so simple and this is
why I love it. We played around with social status with the different
characters and how they may react with each other and Brecht technique allowed
us to tell a simple but effective story with our bodies and not just our
vocals. It allows characters to get across their ideas to the audience without
the actor's having to connect emotionally with their character's situation and
just using gestures. Another exercise we did was we had to stand at opposite
ends of the room in two straight lines and my side was the "tough no
emotion" soldiers and the other side was the old people trying to get past
us, I thought it was a very interesting exercise as even though the characters
why quite "stock" characters the actions and reactions were quite
realistic as a group we really channelled into the fact that realistically
would a soldier push and old person to the floor or would they just stand guard
maybe raising their hand or even their gun. Brecht exercise allows us to convey
a message to the audience through our gestures rather than our voices and the
fact that we are studying political theatre our end goal is to create a message
for the audience to either understand or question the idea.
