It’s exciting to see Brecht’s The Caucasian Chalk Circle made so palatable and engaging for young audiences at the Unicorn Theatre near London Bridge. Brecht’s traditional moralising and debate is balanced with compelling storytelling and characters that we can really care for in director Amy Leach’s revival of Frank McGuinness’s 1997 translation of the play.
The company has made the shrewd decision to omit Brecht’s original prologue, and offer the audience their thoughts on why the story speaks to us today in our post-capitalist society. Indeed, beginning on such an inviting note by meeting its audience on a level, the production offers an exciting introduction to theatre for the young audiences and school groups, for whom it may be their first time. For more seasoned theatregoers it offers some stunning imagery, clever staging and some deft multi-role acting by a talented cast, headed by Kiran Sonia Sawar as Grusha, our heroine.
The story has a strong political and moral flavour and follows Grusha, who rescues the baby of the Georgian governor when all hell has broken loose in the city and its mother has abandoned it. The first act follows Grusha’s trials and tribulations while she seeks safety amid the chaos, often sacrificing her own health and happiness to do so on behalf of the child. The second act focuses on Azdak the judge, played with verve by Nabil Shaban. While it does often lapse more into discussion and dialectic than drama, the latter part of the act builds to a gripping climactic moment.
The play’s conclusion offers the hope that those who are poor and powerless can indeed overcome their oppressors by simple good-heartedness. If only it was that straightforward, though this production does help us to imagine what that world – a world where the selfish and money-hungry do not see their every demand met – might look like. This production of The Caucasian Chalk Circle certainly has a contemporary resonance in that regard, and itself refers to the current global issue of the elite 1% holding nearly half of the world’s wealth.
However, for all its commendable stance on this front, one had to wonder, in a theatre full of (and designed for) young people – those whom we so often label “the future” – how helpful it is to revive a play that offers such skewed and outdated gender politics. Arguably, one of the play’s overarching messages is about how women ought to behave: in the world of the play, being a virtuous mother is paramount, and Grusha is finally rewarded for devoting herself entirely to her child. Equally, we see Grusha ostracised for being a single mother, then tricked into a marriage (with a man who then tries to bully her into bed with him), and nearly raped as punishment for refusing to tolerate the advances of a lecherous soldier. One had to consider whether it didn’t only reinforce the harmful gender stereotypes that we simultaneously wish the younger generations will have a part in fighting one day. Does telling this problematic story encourage them to accept or question it, when such behaviours and expectations have become so normalised?
This uncomfortable undercurrent aside, this production of The Caucasian Chalk Circle certainly offers audiences plenty, from live music to some great jokes. If only Brecht, for all his didacticism, could have covered all his bases.
The Caucasian Chalk Circle is playing at the Unicorn Theatre until 21 March. For more information and tickets, see the Unicorn Theatre website.
The post Review: The Caucasian Chalk Circle, Unicorn Theatre appeared first on A Younger Theatre.