Brecht-ing the Fourth Wall
Adina's Thoughts on the Use of Brechtian Techniques on Dear White People
“Okay, so the musical numbers are a bit Brechtian.”
“ Yeah, of course.”
This exchange opens episode 4 of season 4 (I mean, Volume 4) of Netflix’s Dear White People. If you’re confused, like Sam, don’t worry, because Lionel goes on to explain: “Brechtian is when the story draws attention to itself, like when a character looks right into the lens for no reason.” He looks directly into the camera as he says this, though it’s because he’s on a “Zoom” call. Once again using the chat by accident, Sam types: “Note to self - make characters look in lens”.
The word “Brechtian” comes from the German playwright Bertolt Brecht, author of many influential works, most famously The Threepenny Opera. Brecht’s works were known for his distinctive and groundbreaking “alienation effect”, in which he would do everything he could to remind the audience they were watching a play. This is in contrast to the typical dramatic tradition of trying to make the story seem like it’s really happening, and creating an invisible “fourth wall” between the actors and the audience. Thus, Brecht’s works often included breaking that fourth wall by having characters look at, or even address, the audience.
Lionel and Sam’s conversation defining “Brechtian” is part of a — you guessed it — Brechtian framing device that surrounds the entire fourth season, a flash forward to the characters some decades into the future from their senior year of college in which the “present” of the show is set.
While Dear White People was always on the meta, tongue-in-cheek side of TV, Volume 4 takes it to a new level. The story of the characters’ senior year at Winchester University, a fictional, predominantly white Ivy League school, is told via flashbacks while Sam, Lionel, and the others hash it out in “The Future”, hoping to adapt it into a book or TV show. If that’s not already enough layers of fiction-within-fiction for you, in the senior year timeline, the main focus is the Varsity Show, a longstanding tradition where students create a satirical stage performance to comment on campus events. So you have characters in the future hoping to create a show about their senior year, which they spent creating a show about what was happening at their school that year. And all of this is on a TV show that we’re watching. (Are we on a TV show too? I don’t know anymore!)
Troy, taking the lead on the Varsity show, declares it will be a musical featuring 90’s R&B hits – as the entirety of Dear White People Volume 4 becomes. Lionel is taken aback at this suggestion, asking, “Does anyone else our age even listen to [90’s R&B]? Or is it just 30-year-olds who write characters in our age group for TV?”
Lines like this are the norm in a season that also features an ambiguous future in which everyone wears fashionable face masks and gets phone alerts for new viruses popping up daily. The characters in the future frequently meet over a Zoom-like video platform and comment on what they accomplished during the “last quarantine”. It’s obviously based on our collective experience in the current pandemic, but it’s not a literal representation of the current pandemic, instead functioning as a sort of nudge-and-wink, “aren’t we all sick of Covid plots on TV?” by taking the bleak future past the extreme and into the fashionable.
I won’t spoil any more of the plot of the final season, but I highly encourage fans of the show to get to it sooner rather than later – and if you haven’t seen the show, go ahead and pick up Dear White People from Volume 1. I’ve watched each season of this show as it was released, and I must say I admire the creator, Justin Simien, for being able to make each season feel both contemporary to when it was released, and also stylistically distinct. Each season takes new risks and they all pay off, including the hyper-meta focus of the final season. I also admire the choice to make the final season a 90’s musical for no other reason than it’s fun. I need to shout out Justin Simien as well for the most I’ve heard (and used) the word “Brechtian” since finishing my theater degree. And thanks to Lionel’s explanation, now you can drop “Brechtian” in conversation, too.
TV This Week
The season 2 finale of Ted Lasso is now streaming on Apple TV+!
Acapulco premieres on Apple TV+ today:
Other TV News
IATSE voted yes to a strike authorization! A strike is not yet happening, but IATSE is back in the midst of negotiations with AMPTP as studios agree to 10-hour turnarounds after long production days. However, they are still not close to an agreement. Don’t forget to follow @ia_stories on both Twitter and Instagram for more up to date information.
There has been an interesting trend in recent media of the “Black Lady Therapist”, a character played by a usually older Black woman whose only purpose is to help the (usually) white leads process their emotions, and the audience knows little to nothing about their own personal life. This NPR article explores how shows such as Ted Lasso, The White Lotus, and In Treatment are turning this trope on its head and allowing us to see the humanity in these characters.
Podcast News
We’re back with new episodes starting next Wednesday! Here’s our schedule for the months of October and November:
That’s all for this week! If you’re enjoying this, don’t forget to share and tell a friend to subscribe. And don’t forget to catch up with old episodes of the podcast while you wait.