“Brecht, formerly hostile to Stanislavski having seen the American application of his approach, changed his view when he read his books and saw the MAT productions. In his 1951 Letter to an Actor (quoted in Brecht on Theatre by John Willett, Methuen Drama, 1964), he makes clear that some of his statements on critical objectivity in acting have been misunderstood: ‘Of course the stage of a realistic theatre must be peopled by live, three-dimensional, self-contradictory people, with all their passions, unconsidered utterances and actions.’ People were struck by the realism and inner content of the Berliner Ensemble’s work when they came to Britain in 1956: the famous ‘alienation effect’ doesn’t demand alienating acting!”
