Relating to or characteristic of the playwright Bertolt Brecht, who believed that theatre should be used to make political or social comment, and who therefore refused to allow the audience to suspend their disbelief by, for example, keeping the lights on in the auditorium.
Brechtian
Fact of the Day
Before a naval battle with England in 1545, French king Francis I held a farewell dinner on his flagship, which shortly afterwards sank having caught fire when her guns went off by themselves.
Quote of the Day
"A man must needs close his eyes and clench his teeth, wry-mouthed and shuddering, and filtering the stuff rather than drinking.
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~ Peter of Blois, 12th century, on English wine
On This Day
1483 The proposed date of the coronation of the 12-year-old son of Edward IV, Edward V. The coronation never happened because his uncle, Richard, declared him illegitimate and became king himself.
1611 Navigator Henry Hudson was cast adrift after a mutiny in Hudson Bay. It was the last time he was seen alive.
1861 A huge blaze started on Tooley Street's Cotton Wharf, which was later compared to the Great Fire of London, caused £2 million worth of damage, and killed James Braidwood, superintendent of the London Fire Engine Establishment.
1941 The Nazis launched Operation Barbarossa against the Soviet Union, with the largest invasion force in the history of warfare.
