Brechtian Techniques

Alienation/Strange-making/Verfremdungseffect (The "V" Effect)


The distancing effect is a performing arts concept coined by Bertolt Brecht. The distancing effect is achieved by the artist (actor) performing as though there is no metaphorical fourth wall between the performers and the audience.

Bertlot Brecht's alienation effect means that for him should not "live" in his part but be outside it. Whilst he must completely understand his part it should only be enough to make a "comment" on it. The audience meanwhile is expected to judge each character critically. Brecht did not mean it as a rigid discipline but more as a guide and the result is the "theatre of debate". We can see his early plays proclaiming the advantages of Communism. Some of the techniques one might see in his plays include a narrator singing, slides and lighting simply as illumination not for effect.