Text from a Dramaturg's Notebook on the Play "Mother Courage and Her Children" by Bertolt Brecht

STAGING:
The stage is set up with seats arranged around the outside of the central acting area (Theatre in the round) to reinforce the idea of alienation. Unlike in dramatic theatre where the action on stage depicted as life itself; the audience of epic theatre must regularly be reminded that they are watching a performance. For the audience of dramatic theatre it is as though they are looking into a room, the fourth wall of which having been magically been made invisible. However, this illusion is shattered during the performance of Mother Courage by the use of theatre in the round. …