World War II resulted in 60 million deaths between the Axis and Allied forces. After the war, many theaters had closed due to bombings and rationing made productions difficult. However, theaters began expanding outside major cities and the UK established the National Theatre in 1963. Bertolt Brecht developed theories of Epic theater to use drama to explore how audiences might react to controversial events, writing plays like The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui. Joan Littlewood was a influential British theater director from 1930-1975 who founded the Theatre Workshop to entertain orphaned children freed from Nazi camps.

1. Post-War Theatre

2. Background History
World War II (1937-1945) was fought
between the Axis (Germany, Italy, Japan)
and Allies (Britain, France, the Soviet
Union, US, China) which resulted in 60
million deaths and 15% of these deaths (9
million) were killed in concentration
camps, 200,000 died from the atomic
bomb drop in Hiroshima and Nagasaki in
1945.

3. After 1945 theatres continued to expanding to
outside of major cities into regional and
provincial areas, as well as state-sponsored
theatre including the London’s national theatre
in 1963. However, there were quite a lot of
theatres (especially throughout London which
had to close as a result of the war because of
air raids, heavy bombings and blackouts.
A lot of paint and materials were rationed
during the war and for some years after it,
making it difficult to put on a production.

4. Most drama theories were still based on
modern writings by Bertolt Brecht’s
theories of Epic theatre and use of
theatre as a medium to see how
people would react to controversial
events in theatre.
Brecht wrote plays such as The Resistible
Rise of Arturo Ui, The Good Person of
Szechuan and more..

5. Joan Littlewood
Joan Littlewood was one of the most influential
theatre directors in Britain, 1930-75 (Active).
She founded ‘theatre workshop’ (which was a
popular working class theatre which entertained
orphaned children freed from Nazi camps.

6. End.
(Purely due to the fact Chris and Jasmine are doing post- war too
and probably have more facts)