How the Tin Can Bros’ Musical “Gross Prophets” Utilises Conventions of Brechtian Theatre
WARNING: SPOILERS FOR TIN CAN BROS MUSICAL GROSS PROPHETS. IF YOU HAVE NOT SEEN THIS MUSICAL LIVE/WATCHED THE DIGITAL TICKET, PROBABLY DON’T READ THIS.
Introducing post number two on this blog. The fact that zero people liked, commented or reblogged my last post has left me completely unfazed - however I have decided to (mostly) stick with one niche fandom in this rant, instead of two niche fandoms with hardly any overlap. Without further ado, here are my thoughts:
Brechtian Theatre, summarised
Brechtian theatre is a type of theatre pioneered by Bertolt Brecht, a German playwright in the 20th century. His main idea was that theatre should be used for social commentary, and to “teach” the audience, as opposed to simple entertainment. One way he did this in plays was by using various techniques, such as breaking the fourth wall, satire/humour, or narration, to alienate the audience from the story and the characters, thus preventing them from forming an emotional attachment and therefore think more critically about the message being portrayed. This post is going to be discussing how the tin can bros use this technique of alienation in their production Gross Prophets.
Ambiguity of "The Company" and "Product"
Throughout the entire play, the characters are referred to as working for "The Company". "The Company" has all the stereotypes of a pyramid scheme: a high emphasis on recruiting new members, lots of levels of recruitment to work towards/move up, a almost cult-like sense of commitment from the members, and questionable morals. Very little information is given about what "The Company" actually does, other than that they sell "The Product". A similar amount of information is given about "The Product" as well. This vagueness is also a common trait of pyramid schemes, however the musical exagerates this to an extremely humorous extent. The audience is given an oportunity to ask questions about the product, however respond to all questions, including ones like "What is it?" or "What is it used for?" with a synchronised "Yes" or "No". The intentional vagueness alienates the audience, as it draws the attention away from the actual story and characters, allowing them to be a representation of all pyramid schemes, or products, as opposed to a specific story about a specific company. Furthermore, the exagerated humour also acts as an alienation technique. (more on that later.)
Use of direct adress/breaking fourth wall
Throughout the performance, the audience is actually part of the play, being the newly recruited members of The Company. The whole play is literally just the characters presenting to the audience the benefits of The Company, and giving their personal tips on how to work by selling The Product. There are many instances of the audience having the oportunity to interact with the characters, ask questions, etc. Characters also react to the audience's reactions, e.g. thanking them for applauding. Furthermore, there are many references to the cast/characters being from america, which they make light of to the Australian audience. e.g. "have you heard of [some american supermarket]. nah, probably not. They're this bougie market in America where they put three raisins in a bag and sell it for twenty bucks. that's, what, 10,000 AUD?" (That is not the exact quote but it was something along those lines). Having the actors play characters who are also presenting to an audience blurs the lines between what is actually the play, and what is really just the actors just talking to the audience. This serves in alienating the audience by reminding them that they are, in fact, an audience watching a play, and are then less likely to become engaged in the story, and more like to think about the messages being portrayed.
Projections and Lighting Effects
PowerPoints projections are part of the show, used by the characters in their presentations. Several gags include the slides "not working," or having the "wrong photos" on them (this turned out to be a good cover for one time when the slides actually stopped working). Lighting effects are used in a similar manner: one musical number features the singer frequently "forgetting" where the spotlights are going to appear, and sprinting across the stage. Lighting and projections are usually used to enhance the show, by providing drama, or portraying backdrops for the scene to take place. By directly referencing these, and having them "malfunction" does the oposite, reminding the audience that a play is taking place.
there is lots of humour in the play - it's a comedy musical. One main way this is used to alienate the audience is through the characters. The three main, and only, characters are named "Bachman Turner-Underwood," "April May June" and "Todd Ankle." These names were known to the audience before the show via posters in the theatre. (the posters also had elements of humourous alienation, with slogans such as "Insert quote here. please don't print it this way!") This immediately sets the play up as having a light-hearted and silly tone, which contrasts with the serious nature of the issues it adresses. By making the characters names ridiculous, the audience is already alienated before the play has even started - nobody is going to go into play prepared to care about a character named "Todd Ankle." Furthermore, the characters themselves are humourous stereotypes, with no character development or qualities that allow the audience to emotionally connect with them. Thier advice on selling the product is generally morally questionable or useless.
Bachman Turner-Underwood takes the form of a hip, young man obssesed with his physicue. His advice to the audeince is that they, like him, can use thier atractiveness to advertise "The Product". He claims to "Bio-mechanically alter" his body in humourously obscure ways to increase this atractiveness. (There was a whole song about this, though the only specifics I can remember is that his "abs are made of gold" and he has the "blood of a pre-teen".)
April May June speaks in an exagerated southern accent, frequently talks about how much she worships god, and presents with an exagerated feminist attitude. (e.g. April May June: "there's only one gender identity I recognise and that's us girls!" It’s a woman’s world soundbite plays, while April May June dances. female audience cheers. my male friend sitting next to me remarks that he should leave.) However she also has very confined ideas of gender roles, as often associated with southern christians. For instance, she acknowledges when speaking to the women in the audience audience that they're probably going to have trouble finding the time to sell the product, as they're too busy cleaning, cooking, and being on their period. Her advice to sell the product is to gain the trust and friendship of people who can help you move up in the bussiness world by helping them while they are vulnerable - essentially just manipulating and exploiting them for personal gain.
Todd Ankle takes the apearance of a stereotypical mystic-hippee-guru, with long hair, crystal necklaces and beaded bracelets. Personality-wise, he is basically just a weak pushover, who is prone to bad luck. (he's the character who keeps forgetting where the stage spotlights are, and has his powerpoint presentation malfunction.) Todd is probably the character who comes closest to illiciting an emotional response from the audience. However even this emotional response is not genuine. The character is portrayed to be pathetic and sad, and thus draws sympathy from the audience. however the reason people "feel sad" for the character is more out of humour than genuine sadness - it's funny to feel sorry for him because he’s so pathetic. His advice is in line with his personaltiy - changing the way you think about things to make your misfortune seem less bad than it actually is. e.g. "If all this horrible stuff hadn't happened to me and messed up my life, I wouldn't have found The Company!" - (not a direct quote.) His main solo in the musical features the lyrics "I'm no broken ankle . . . you can walk on me". which, in adition to being absurdly hillarious, also is a great use of irony. the concept of "being walked on" generally reffers being weak/lacking self advocacy, whereas Todd says this with a sense of melodramatic pride, reflecting the characters phillosphy of viewing his misfortune and weakness as being a positive occurence. (it is not.)
By having such ridiculous characters that no one cares about, makes the ending (which Im about to talk about) incredibly powerful and clever.
Towards the end of the show, the characters recieve a video call from the head of The Company, "Dr Cheeseman" (again, with the silly names!). He informs them that they will be able to move from their current level of "Model-executive-specialist" to the "Coporate Level", presumably the highest level of the company. however at the end of the play, they discover that they have been given the role of "Mail Collector" on the Coporate Level, and there are still hundreds more roles within the coporate level for them to move up through. This then follows a cheery ending song about the need to be constantly working to move up the levels of The Company. This is very in line with the humorous tone of the rest of the play. However, during a sort of bridge or middle eight of the song, the tone completely changes to become much more genuine, as the characters sing about their motivations/reasons for being in The Company - to be revered, loved, and accepted. the lighting also changes to match the more serious tone - the only time it's used to add to the mood of the actual play. The song then quickly switches back to the cheery satirical tone, as the musical ends. This brief, yet signficant change in tone is possibly the only moment in the musical where the audience is expected to feel an emotional connection to the characters, who are finally shown as something more than their humourous stereotypes. The motivations they declare are all universal insecurities and even match up with the each character’s stereotype as previously described (Bachman wants to be revered, April wants to be loved, and Todd wants to be accepted) the fact that these characters have been portrayed as ridiculous/silly throughout the play has a real “biting effect,” often associated with Brechtian theatre, as the characters are revealed to all be just regular people who are seeking affirmation through The Company. Like, I was just sitting in the theatre thinking Jesus Christ, who put up the fourth wall??? I believe this does a really good job in conveying a message of how pyramid schemes can take advantage of vulnerable people.
Thanks if you bothered to read this far!
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