When watching the Bread and Puppet theatre, I find myself initially engaged. But as the performance jump from one issue to another, albeit related thematically and in the root of their problems, I found it slightly difficult to stay focused. I also grew slightly skeptical of the point of compiling all of these issues into one performance. Even though all theatre and all art, one might say, touches on a multivarious host of questions, there’s usually a focal point.

In the Brecht essay, he situated the lack of total, “self-surrendering” empathy in Chinese theatre. I think perhaps another angle to look at this from is a redefining of empathy, instead of “identifying” but allowing oneself to be moved. As he said, the degree of removal makes the audience retain their sense of self, and even the artist is well-aware he is performing something else. No one is imagining oneself as the hero or heroine. Rather, they allow themselves to be moved by the story of another. It is a “feeling with” that doesn’t venture into filling the interior of the other with an self-sentimentalizing imagination. I think this outline of empathy is better temporary, merely mental imagination of being another person because that can easily be translated into self-pity. If empathy is going to mobilize people, people need to allow themselves to be moved by others.