Spass and Gestus - Epic theatre and Brecht - GCSE Drama.
Alienation effect, also called a-effect or distancing effect, German Verfremdungseffekt or V-effekt, idea central to the dramatic theory of the German dramatist-director Bertolt Brecht.The alienation effect first came in sight at the time of Bertolt Brecht who was a German leftist playwright and also a director. The only thing that is famous of his time was that the theater of his time, which is just the same as most Hollywood movies now, completely relied on emotional manipulation to bring about a sense of disbelief for the audience, along with an emotional identification.The alienation effect was Brecht’s principle of using innovative theatrical techniques to “make the familiar strange” in order to provoke a social-critical audience response.
Brecht uses alienation to describe the method of helping the audience to be receptive to his dramatic intentions. Brecht called for the audience’s alienation to oppose the mystifying tendency of the conventional stage, tendencies that reduced its audience to passive, trance-like states.In others words Brecht’s alienation effect is an effort to make the whole idea of seeing a play less about being transported to a experience and more about understanding why something was created; to have the audience remain objective.
Learn about Bertolt Brecht, devices that use the alienation effect, and Brechtian staging when discussing Epic theatre and Brecht for GCSE Drama.
