Drums in the Night

Style and Technique

In "Drums in the Night," Bertolt Brecht emerges as a master of concise, expressive style, where every line and detail is charged with inner tension and hidden meaning. The language of the play is deliberately simple, stripped of excessive lyricism, yet within this apparent simplicity lies deep dramatic power: short, abrupt phrases and sharp, subtext-rich dialogues create a sense of nervous rhythm, like echoes of a drumbeat. Brecht skillfully employs techniques of alienation, allowing the audience not to dissolve in the characters’ emotions but to maintain a critical distance and reflect on what is happening. The structure of the work is built on contrasts: between light and shadow, hope and disappointment, illusions and the harsh reality of postwar Berlin. The author deftly weaves elements of grotesque and irony into the narrative, exposing the inner emptiness and fracture of the characters. Brecht’s dramaturgy here is not just a sequence of events, but a subtle play of meanings, where every word and gesture becomes part of a larger social and psychological experiment.