Pardon me. Du bist Bertolt Brecht, recht?
March 10, 2016 9:11 PM   Subscribe

"I was going to write up a little essay about the way Hamilton incorporates Brechtian performance techniques and whether Brecht still packs any punch in the twenty-first century. But then for some reason it became a rap battle instead."
posted by galaxy rise (18 comments total) 21 users marked this as a favorite
 
He is wrong. I totally cry when Phillip dies. Every time. Well actually it's when Eliza comes in but still.
posted by corb at 9:23 PM on March 10, 2016 [1 favorite]


Eliza's scream: "Alexander, did you KNOW?!" Is heartbreaking. The emotional despair is so on point. Kills me.
Also, this rap battle is damned good. Annoyingly fun. Incredible even.
posted by asavage at 9:27 PM on March 10, 2016 [5 favorites]


You know, I went in a little cold on this one from the description, but hooo boy. That was fabulous.

I love me some Brecht, but I also love me some highly creative ripping on Brecht.
posted by Itaxpica at 9:56 PM on March 10, 2016 [2 favorites]


Let me let you in on a little secret that may cause you dismay:
EVERYBODY ALWAYS KNOWS THEY’RE WATCHING A PLAY.


That must've hurt, old Bert. Verfremdungseffekt's not what it used to be.

That was fun, thanks
posted by sapagan at 9:57 PM on March 10, 2016 [3 favorites]


He is wrong.

If you're referring to the author, rather than the "introject" Lin Manuel Miranda, then FYI she identifies as female. But yes, I cry when Phillip dies too. I cry all over this play. Brecht would be disappointed.

The author has a few additional posts about Hamilton that I found interesting:

* On "Right Hand Man": "While the music gives Washington the strength and power and self-mastery that the revolutionaries are demanding from Britain, and which Hamilton himself is constantly in search of, the lyrics are all about his vulnerability to the overwhelming violence being used against him by the existing government. ... one of the ways Miranda pulls this off in “Right Hand Man” is through his use of the spondee."

* On "Aaron Burr, Sir": "So Burr’s doing the English imitation of the neoclassical hero’s meter, whereas Hamilton’s doing something closer to the original French. CAUSE HE’S FLUENT IN FRENCH, I MEAN. So, OK, this is boring prosody and only I care BUT, this is also storytelling. It makes complete sense for Burr’s character that his lines would be more measured and controlled and correct, metrically speaking, just as it makes even more sense that Hamilton’s are more fluid and (literally) offbeat."

* On Hamilton and contemporary politics: "All historical fiction/drama/opera/whatever is really about two different time periods: the period in which the text is set, and the period in which it was written. When I think about Hamilton in the context of my own memories of American poilitics, certain things shift. For instance, my reading of the whole Maria Reynolds thing seems to be different from the consensus reading (as far as I know it), partly because of my memories of the Clinton era."
posted by galaxy rise at 10:02 PM on March 10, 2016 [13 favorites]


With the exception of North Koreans televised wailing at the death of Kim Jong-il, I don't think I've ever seen as many people crying so much in public as I saw during a performance of Hamilton.
posted by zachlipton at 11:02 PM on March 10, 2016 [1 favorite]


Ha. Fun! But count me in as another who finds themselves crying at Philip's death. Twice over in fact - I'm inevitably hit first by Alexander's grief and then Eliza's.
posted by pharm at 12:35 AM on March 11, 2016 [2 favorites]


I'm downloading “Hamilton” right now.
I have never listened to it before.
Posted on February 26th. The Brecht battle followed on the 5th, which means she learned to emulate Miranda-as-Hamilton's flow to a frightening degree of accuracy in just over a week. Behold the true power of the prosodist!
posted by Iridic at 3:46 AM on March 11, 2016 [7 favorites]


I do hope someone records this, because I honestly found it hard to follow in this format. Im betting it performs better than it reads.
posted by Pirate-Bartender-Zombie-Monkey at 8:40 AM on March 11, 2016 [1 favorite]


This is awesome and her blog is fantastic and thank you so much for this post!
posted by rtha at 8:41 AM on March 11, 2016 [1 favorite]


I don't know where this fits into the crying-about-Hamilton sweepstakes, but I just cried reading this Hamilton-style rap battle about Brechtian philosophy of theater. Partly because it was good, which is what a lot of my Hamilton crying is really about. Partly because it poked at the cognitive dissonance created by the fact that the Hamilton phenomenon (as ongoing performance and collective madness) can coexist with the current GOP primary (as ongoing performance and collective madness).

Also this made me realize that one of my observations about Hamilton was Brechtian. [Spoilers for staging ahead.] Before I watched the show, I'd only listened to the first half of the cast album. I was prepped for the second half to be sad, and obviously it was. But I found the choice of having Anthony Ramos play Philip even as a young child distancing - I think it meant that I was less affected by the actual moment of Philip's death than I otherwise would have been. The knowing goofiness of having an adult dressed up as a little kid took me out of things in a way that all of the other extra-narrative elements did not, and it meant that I never quite bonded with Philip as a character in the way I did everyone else. (I think it would have worked differently if I'd heard the second half before seeing it.) I've been puzzling about that a bit ever since, wondering if it was intentional and if so what the purpose was. This piece raised the possibility that it could be an attempt to channel the intensity of my emotional reaction into It's Quiet Uptown, which is exactly what happened, so bravo I guess.
posted by yarrow at 8:52 AM on March 11, 2016 [2 favorites]


This might be because I am watching it as an older adult - my daughter, for example, is unmoved by Eliza's scream - but I find that the things that move me to tears the most about Hamilton are not the actual deaths, but other people's reactions to the deaths. Eliza and Alexander as Phillip is dying, the idea of Hamilton walking grief-bowed in, "It's Quiet Uptown". For Hamilton's death, it's not his actual death, but the stunned horror of Aaron Burr, who calls "Wait!" too late, who tries to reach Hamilton but who is "ushered away", who hears wailing in the streets and realizes, holy fuck, what have I done? And then again, with Eliza figuring out how to love her husband even though he is dead.

I don't think Philip as child is meant to be distancing - I think it's just probably too much for a child actor, and also, they want you to know who he is immediately later.
posted by corb at 9:17 AM on March 11, 2016 [7 favorites]


Oh, yeah, I understand that there are plenty of logistical reasons to do it that way, but it did cause a ripple of amusement in the audience and this show is so intentional about everything, so I could go either way.
posted by yarrow at 9:56 AM on March 11, 2016 [1 favorite]


"Above all, entertain" -B.Brecht
posted by judson at 11:07 AM on March 11, 2016 [1 favorite]


Plaidder on Tumblr is PlaidAdder on the Archive of Our Own. She wrote the impressive, funny, case-fic Wild About Harry, a Harriet Watson–centric novel that fixes BBC Sherlock, a lot. In addition to TFA, she writes reams of thoughtful & creative meta on the X-Files, Sherlock, Doctor Who, among others.
posted by Jesse the K at 9:15 AM on March 12, 2016 [3 favorites]


actually Germans put "oder?" (or) at the end of sentences, not "isn't it?" and stuff. One German thing i could never get the hang of (and i was living there). It might be "recht?" in the article, but normally, it would be oder
posted by maiamaia at 5:44 AM on March 13, 2016


sure go ahead and ruin the rhyme with 'accuracy' FINE
posted by vibratory manner of working at 1:01 PM on March 13, 2016


This is the coolest!!!*

*for certain very nerdy values of "cool"
posted by Ambrosia Voyeur at 10:23 PM on March 16, 2016


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