It can be inferred from the passage that Brecht would most likely approve of a performance if it
In the 1920s the German playwright Bertolt Brecht developed what he called epic theatre. Traditional drama, he argued, invites the audience to identify with the hero and to feel his fear and pity, so that spectators leave the theatre emotionally satisfied but unchanged. Brecht wanted the opposite. His plays interrupt the story with songs, signs and direct addresses to the audience, and actors are encouraged to show their characters instead of becoming them. This technique, often called the alienation effect, is meant to make familiar situations seem strange, so that viewers ask why people act as they do and whether society could be different. Brecht's best-known plays, such as Mother Courage and Her Children, were written in exile after 1933. Critics have noted that the plays can still move audiences deeply, which Brecht did not always welcome. Yet he never claimed that emotion and thought exclude each other; he claimed only that feeling should not replace judgement.
Answer and explanation
Correct answer: D. left the audience asking why the characters behave as they do
- Step 1: The aim is to provoke questions about behaviour and society. Step 2. The option that says the audience was left asking why the characters behave as they do matches this aim. Answer: it left the audience asking why. Why not the others: these contradict his aims.
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