Another outstanding Brecht production
The Caucasian Chalk Circle
By Bertolt Brecht
Directed by Michael Kantor
Belvoir St Theatre, Sydney
Until October 25
Review by Brendan Doyle
In this centenary year of his birth, commentators have cast doubts on some aspects of Bertolt Brecht's work. Some of his lovers — and they were numerous — may have contributed more to his plays than he cared to acknowledge.
This demystification of Brecht the legend is all to the good. A victim of Nazi persecution, whose son was killed in German uniform on the Russian front, Brecht was full of contradictions, like many of his characters.
To bring out contradictions in society is a noble function of theatre, one that Brecht again achieved in The Caucasian Chalk Circle, now given a lively and enjoyable production at Belvoir Street.
Completed in 1945, the play is based on a Chinese legend and remains a powerful dramatic presentation of conflicting social forces, as relevant today as it was then.
One of the joys of this production is the English translation by Frank McGuinness, racy and contemporary and not mincing vulgar words when necessary.
What is fascinating in this play, as in the earlier Mother Courage, is that it focuses not on the problem of evil, but on the problem of being poor and good in an oppressive, unjust society. Unlike Mother Courage, which ends in tragedy, Chalk Circle ends happily — for the first time in Brecht's theatre.
Brecht had given a lot of thought to the question of how poor exploited people cope with their oppression. In 1934 he wrote: "Many persecuted people lose the ability to admit their errors, and persecution seems the supreme injustice to them. In fact, good people have been defeated not because they were good but because they were weak."
Grusha, a servant girl, the hero of the play, has little social power but she makes up for it in feistiness. The story starts somewhere in pre-revolutionary Russia, where Grusha meets and instantly falls in love with Simon, but their love must wait because he is a soldier heading off to fight for the deposed Natalia, Grand Archduchess.
In her haste to flee, Natalia leaves behind her baby son, Mikael. Out of kindness, Grusha "adopts" Mikael and begins a life on the run, in the midst of war and famine. In order to feed the boy, she is obliged to marry a man of property who seems to be on his deathbed.
Unfortunately for her, he revives, and Natalia returns after eight years to claim her son. Simon comes back from the war to find her married. But Grusha refuses to give up Mikael.
Self-appointed judge Azdak tries the case, and here is where the legend comes in.
A chalk circle is drawn on the ground and the boy is placed inside. The two women are told to each take an arm and try to pull the boy out of the circle. But Grusha refuses to hurt the child, and Azdak declares her the true mother, because of her compassion. In any case, she has sworn never to give up the boy she has raised and loved, and whom Mikael loves as his mother. Grusha and Simon are reunited and married, with their new son.
Grusha has won not because she was good but because she was strong, never giving up the fight for what she loved.
Julie Forsyth as Grusha has created a truly touching character who wins our sympathy from the first. Paul Capsis as the narrator is over the top as usual, but it doesn't matter in this larger-than-life style chosen by director Michael Kantor.
The music is a highlight of the show. Iain Grandage on cello, guitar, percussion and other instruments, accompanies the action like a Javanese gamelan orchestra.
Tickets are pricey at $34, but fortunately there's a $21 concession.