A different Verfremdung

The bourgeois theatre's performances always aim at smoothing over contradictions, at creating false harmony, at idealization. Conditions are reported as if they could not be otherwise; characters as individuals, incapable by definition of being divided, cast in one block, manifesting themselves in the most various situations, likewise for that matter existing without any situation at all. If there is any development it is always steady, never by jerks; the developments always take place within a definite framework which cannot be broken through.

None of this is like reality, so a realistic theatre must give it up. - B. Brecht

I have recently come back to the word distancing (which, while insufficiant still, is my prefered translation to "alienation"). We talk of necessary distance of the performer in the CW - something that wasn't there this week, much to the performances demise. We talk about the distance in the stories and the actions of the performers in MfI - of stealing material - not to imititate (the sign of ironic distance, which is not what we want) - but to do as if - a dance equivilant of "he said, she said" - marking also provides a similar response ("I said")

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