Third Front, The: Erwin Piscator: Political Theatre

Synopsis

Erwin Piscator’s work in the 1920s moved theatre away from the confines of domestic drama to the play of forces in world politics. To equip the stage for the ‘epic’ approach, he employed a whole range of 20th century media: film, slides and moving stages, permanently extending the expressive capability of the modern theatre. Working from Piscator’s montage book, ‘Political Theatre’, the film takes ‘Piscator’ as a series of themes: the politicisation of the theatre, the political and economic constraints involved and the invention of forms appropriate to ideological polemics; relocating these in the context of cultural work in present-day London.

Language

English

Country

Great Britain

Medium

Film; Video; Film. 16mm. sd. col. 35 min. Videocassette. VHS. col. 35 min.

Technical information

Black-and-white / Sound

Year of production

1978

Availability

Hire
Sale

Uses

3rd-year BA humanities courses in modern drama. Background for ‘the role of the director’.*

Subjects

Drama

Keywords

Germany; Piscator, Erwin; theatre directors

Credits

Director

Peter Wyeth

Producer

Margaret Williams

Writer

Don McPherson; Peter Wyeth

Distribution Formats

Type

Film

Format

16mm

Production Company

Name

Arbor Films

Distributor

Name

Arts on Film Archive, University of Westminster

Notes

Arts on Film Archive offers on-line access to a large range of films on art produced in the United Kingdom since the 1950s, and is a unique record of British and international post-war art, as well as of documentary film-making in the UK. In its first phase, the archive offers a complete database and an on-line video streaming of all 450 films made by the film department of Arts Council England between 1953 and 1998 and several films produced till 2003 by the dance Department of ACE. The collection is only available streamed to ac.uk domain addresses.