Verfremdungseffekt
Once upon a time I was a Drama teacher, and one of my favourite units to teach was one looking at the work of German Theorist Bertolt Brecht. The German playwright popularised the verfremdungseffekt, (alienation or defamiliarization effect).
Essentially it is a series of tools used in writing, designing, staging, a play that made the audience engage more critically with what was being presented. Brecht figured that a realistic performance allows us to simply view the story as story and not be changed by it. But by ignoring the 4th wall, and staging it more symbolically, it encourages the audience to sit up and take notice.
Why do I tell you this? I guess It’s a long way of saying, “familiarity breeds contempt.”
Our Lessons and Carols service ought to have a little bit of verfremdungseffekt in it. I hope that there are enough moments throughout to shine a different light on a familiar story. Singing carols can become a saccharine and nostalgic activity, whereas the point of the service is to praise God for the outrageous and scandalous decision to coming to us as the incarnate Christ.
So, rather than simply singing the well-known tunes, I pray you’ll turn them into prayers, or take a single image or phrase of poetry and really chew on it. Some of my ‘aha’ moments this week have come from the following phrases... “disperse the gloomy clouds of night, and death’s dark shadows put to flight” “Be folded with us into time and place, unfold for us the mystery of grace and make a womb of all this wounded world.” “veiled in flesh the Godhead see; hail the incarnate Deity” “Between two trees the virgin dances and life blossoms into all its fullness, and our salvation knit within his mother’s womb takes up the breathing and rooted cross of his flesh.” “such a place as none would reckon hosts a holy helpless thing.”
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