ABSTRACT
Emotional distance would allow and encourage the theatre audience to be thoughtful and reflective in response to the unfolding dramatic representation. Equally, the actor would present or represent a character rather than seek to identify with a role. This is not inaccurate as an account of Brecht's thinking, but is incomplete insofar as Brecht was not looking to create theatre which offered no emotional experience. E It is generally thought that one of Brecht's major contributions to the theory and practice of theatre was to propose as a dramatic object the creation of emotional distance as an alternative to the solicitation of emotional identification. In The Messingkauf Dialogues he describes the alienation effect as an artistic effect which leads to a theatrical experience. Though 'alienation' is a key concept in Marxist theory, the roots of Brecht's idea of the alienation effect are elsewhere.
