The post-war Theater witnessed the alterations that the whole world underwent in the course of the Second World War. Right after the war, the European theatrical scenes were occupied by the plays of three authors. They are Tennessee Williams with his “Cat on a Hot Tin Roof”, Jean-Paul Sartre with “No Exit”, and Samuel Becket “Waiting for Godot”;
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Modern Theatre comes from the European Renaissance Theatre of the 16th-17th centuries that dates back to the Ancient Greek and Roman Theatre. Its foundation was laid down in England and Italy, especially by the English Renaissance Theatre between in the period between Reformation and theatre closure in 1642;
The beginning of the 19th century was swept by the never-before-seen cultural movement known as Romanticism. One of the first European dramatists who got himself involved in this process was August Schlegel that considered W. Shakespeare the greatest playwright;
Bertold Brecht Theater
Bertold Brecht is one of the most famous German playwrights of all times and nations. For his life, he created tens of theatrical "pearls" that amaze millions of Theater connoisseurs throughout the world. His most outstanding works are "Baal", "The Beggar", "Driving out a Devil", "Edward II" and many, many others.
He ran Berlin National Theater and gained his popularity not only as a genial playwright, but also as a director and producer. It may not be claimed that his personal life and career were absolutely successful, however, he contributed a lot to the development of Modern European Theater.
Among other issues, he developed his own theory of Theater in which Theater's main role was educative. It is the so-called 'Epic Theater'. He didn't find the theater to be the place of emotional "splash" or relaxation, but the other way round. He deemed that theater should evoke rationalism and critical view of the activities that were played onstage. He was one of the first authors who proposed to involve the audience into spectacle and express their opinion. In Berlin, this brilliant idea was conceived with acclaim and enthusiasm.
He tried to create the effect of reality on the scene, asserting that real life has to be reached out of Theater. His actors addressed the audience in a direct way, spoke very loudly onstage and applied the principle of "historicisation" that came to telling similar historic narrations during the main play. In this way, Brecht hoped to reconstruct the real life of by-gone epochs and mock at present-day social ills.
It must be confirmed that his theory of theater influenced Modern Theater in a colossal way, making some of his innovations the realias of the European Theatrical tradition.
In general, Brecht's creativity is considered to be belonging to Modernism and Post-Modernism. He is also regarded as the founder of the Political Theater.