In Aristotelian drama, the public left theaters having gone through catharsis. They would relate at personal levels with characters and looked at drama as life. Brecht was so much against this mentality. According to him, drama is a representation of life and not life itself.
The public, therefore, has to only take lessons from plays, but not be involved emotionally. He used drama as a platform to hit at political and social ills in society.
In his play, In the Jungle Cities, he uses characters whose actions are not realistic. Most of their actions cannot be done by people of sound mind.
Shlink, for example, gives up his lumber enterprise as compensation for harassing George Garga. Garga, on his part, is ready to give the same enterprise to a Salvation Army officer on condition that he permits them spit on his face.
Bretcht’s audience, therefore, sees the folly of people through the actions of these idiotic characters and, hence, corrects their own behaviors.
In setting up a stage for Brecht’s play; In the Jungle Cities, It is befitting to set up the stage with sets and props that appropriately emphasize messages of all the characters. At the library, for example, there should be books thrown all over the floor and on shelves. There should also be reading tables and seats for readers.
The books and seats should not necessarily be real but improvised to show the separationist principle supported by Brecht. In scenes 10 and 11, the set to be used should be one that depicts a tent where desperate people live.
In the background, the city should be seen from a distance. This setting will help the audience see the consequences of making wrong decisions.
The beginning of every scene should be read out loudly for everyone to hear. This action will help remind the audience that the play is only a representation of life and not life.
In solidarity with Brecht, characters need to be ordinary people. They do not necessarily have to be from noble family backgrounds as in the case of Aristotelian tragedies.
They do not have to act out events with the purpose of eliciting emotions from the public. George Garga, for instance, does not have to seek sympathy from the audience when he volunteers to go to jail for three years, neither does Shlink when he voluntarily chooses to be poor.
George Garga and Shlink will best communicate to the audience if they are dressed in a manner that portrays them as being careless. They should be made to wear ordinary casual costumes.
Throughout the play, they do not care much about themselves. Such dressing will, therefore, best bring out this element. They should then perform their roles in an equally careless manner.
Traditional drama tries to be as true to life as possible. If this play is, therefore, performed in accordance to the dictates of traditional drama, most of the things used and events that happen will have to be coined to match real life as much as possible.
The props and sets used will be real ones, characters will faithfully stick to norms of real life and the audience will expect a cathartic effect at the end of the play. According to Brecht, it defeats the essence of drama to watch a play with the purpose of emotional association with characters.