Bertolt Brecht and epic theatre: V is for Verfremdungseffekt.
The German playwright and drama theorist Bertolt Brecht (1898-1956) is particularly famous for his theory of alienation as a technique of acting and as an “effect” on the audience.Brecht called them, respectively, Verfremdung and Verfremdungseffekt (or V-effekt); however, in lieu of “alienation,” a more appropriate term to render these words into English would be “estrangement.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.Effects in Bertolt Brecht’s The Good Woman of Setzuan Bertolt Brecht uses a variety of techniques in his narrative style which is called epic theatre. Notable among these techniques is alienation effect. To achieve alienation effect, he uses many devices in writing his plays (internal devices) and also in performing them (performing devices).
Brecht's approach to epic theatre drew on the work of earlier director Erwin Piscator, as well as cabaret, Elizabethan history plays and new technologies of light and sound. Andrew Dickson explores how the rejection of naturalism, in the service of political ideals, underpins Brecht's plays, and considers the influence of Brecht's techniques on theatre today.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 was Brecht’s principle of using innovative theatrical techniques to “make the familiar strange” in order to provoke a social-critical audience response.
