The Third Front. Political theatre: Erwin Piscator - ACE079.3

Exterior Theatre Royal, Haymarket. "Millions might stand against society … and yet as soon as the word ‘art’ was spoken, a reverential silence descended… the Third Front [was] the cultural front … the noise of conflict stopped at the box office". Piscator compares epic theatre to a novel which can contain descriptions of social and political conditions, talks about the multi-media devices used to help such ideas, and says that a narrator must always be part of the action on the stage rather than a commentator. Caption: "1924-27 The Revue and Traditional Theatre." Caption: "1924 Political Revue ‘Red Riot Revue’." Photograph. "A revue in fourteen scenes, each scene illuminating some problem of proletarian life… a political cabaret…". Man explains that the revue format was "transformed by uniting the disparate elements around the call for revolution" and describes the performances prior to the elections in 1924. Newspaper review. The gains and losses of the Party during the next few months. Caption: "1925 Historical Revue ‘Trotz Alledem!’" Photographs. Commentary talks about the contents of the revue – events of 1914-1919, including the murders of Rosa Luxemburg and Karl Liebknecht – and its multi-media elements, and describes it as "a documentary text, based solely on political documents". Man lists criticisms of the revue. Caption: "Piscator speaks…." Piscator actor speaks translation of original recording (part heard over): "The epic actor will be a sort of narrator … a guide who knows every one of the pictures he will be showing … he is himself both actor and commentator …" Caption: "1926 Classical Play: ‘Die Raüber’ by Schiller. Man in theatre explains that "The text was cut to under half its original length. A visual organisation of mime, gesture and movement restored the performance to its former duration…" VO suggests that classical plays must be given context placing them in the same relation to the new generation as they were originally to the old. Caption: "1927 Controversy at the Volksbühne (People’s Theatre). An author speaks." Man in theatre reads Ehm Welk’s letter "to the Manager of the Union of German Volksbühne Associations" saying that he disapproves of the protest made by the management against Piscator.