Art
and War
Performances
Art and War was Charlotte's dissertation performance, that was accompanied by a 5000 word essay. It explored the roles of art during World War 1 and 2, with particular attention to documentary theatre.
The performance piece was verbatim theatre, and had two voices running through the dialogue. The first was of the wives and families recalling their experiences and emotions caused from losing loved ones, being left behind at home and the effects of the war on their homes. The second voice was of the soldiers themselves, recounting life in the trenches, witnessing tragedies and their emotional reactions to the events.
Whilst the text was naturalistic, there were a few Brechtian staging devices used, the main one being the introduction of scenes with projected text. This text was four or five lines of poetic text to highlight the theme and tone of the pending action. Also seen in this piece, was Brecht's idea of demonstration: a line was given and then presented physically but not acted. Brecht's play Fear and Misery of the Third Reich was a huge structural influence to this piece.