Dramatic vs Epic Theatre

Dramatic Theatre 

Epic Theatre 

Plot  Narrative 
Implicates the spectator in a stage situation  Turns the spectator into an observer but 
Wears down  arouses his capacity for action 
Provides him with sensations  Forces him to take decisions 
Experience  Picture of the world 
The spectator is involved in something  He is made to face something 
Suggestion  Argument  
Instinctive feelings are preserved  Brought to the point of recognition 
The spectator is in the thick of it, shares the experience  The spectator stands outside, studies 
The human being is taken for granted  The human being is the object of inquiry 
He is unalterable  He is alterable and able to alter 
Eyes on the finish  Eyes on the course 
One scene makes another  Each scene for itself 
Linear development  In curves 
Evolutionary determinism  Jumps 
Man as a fixed point  Man as a process 
Thought determines being  Social being determines thought  
Feeling  Reason 

 

From Brecht on Brecht, p37