THE CAUCASIAN CHALK CIRCLE by Bertolt Brecht

Nottingham Lace Market Youth Theatre

The Caucasian Chalk Circle is a play by German modernist playwright Bertolt Brecht. The play, in a nutshell, is about a peasant girl who rescues a baby and becomes a better mother than its wealthy natural parents. She goes to court to win the baby from the birth mother as well as managing to release herself from a marriage which she had been tricked into and returns to the arms of her former beau, and they live happily ever after.

This strikes me as being a fairly new translation and is a very modern adaptation. I've seen this play before and it was, or so it seemed at the time, a very traditional and faithful version of Brecht's script. Not that this was not faithful, it's just very updated, in my eyes to introduce a younger audience to Brecht's humour. And there is a lot of humour in this play.

Typical of Brecht's "play within a play" we start off with the Prologue to make sure that we are made aware that what we are watching is a story that is being told by the actors who in the play are putting on a play.

You could not, by any stretch of the imagination call this a musical but there is music in the play, and I'm not sure if the music is traditional to the play or it's been composed by Joel Walker who provided the guitar accompaniment to the songs. Either way the music is a good compliment to the play, which by the way was written in 1944, and if the songs were original, a nice showcase of Joel's talents as a musician and songwriter.

Brecht's prolific writing has a very anarchic edge and this is brought out with great affect, and with being anarchic, provides some great over the top comedy moments. One of the young actors that springs to mind who delivered this style to great affect was Nick Ford, along with his sidekick Jake Booth as the two ladies who took to Grusha, the peasant girl, played with great consistency by Tilly Poynter-Symonds.

So many actors involved in this large cast but I can only mention a few that really caught my attention. Our narrator who made sure we did not lose the thread was played by Finn Doherty, Gareth Ellis as Lavrenti, Harris Allen as the foul mouthed and mucky minded Sergeant, and Robert Ryan as the drunken judge, Azdak, who did the right thing in the end.

A very male and macho play but there were plenty of female actors in subservient roles, sixteen in all to the twelve male parts with some of the cast doubling up in lesser roles.

A simple but effective set guaranteed that there were no distractions from the witty, bold and bawdy script. Although modern, the costumes remained faithful to the era of the play, and you could feel that Max Bromley who directed the piece must have had a ball directing this energetic and young group in a play which worked so well for that age group.

It may not be to every one's liking but it is worth going to see and supporting this talented bunch of young actors.

Read the original article here.

Review: The Caucasian Chalk Circle, Lace Market Theatre

During a civil insurrection in a remote peasant country a baby boy is abandoned by its selfish upper-crust mother and looked after by a peasant girl. After two years the mother returns to reclaim the boy but her claim is contested in court by his adoptive mother.

One of the most renowned plays of the last century, Bertholt Brecht’s The Caucasian Chalk Circle represents a challenge for any company. The Lace Market Youth Theatre, under the direction of Max Bromley, rise to the challenge. That is, in all respects but one.

The problem is that, up until the final act, projection and articulation from a lot, not all, of the otherwise splendid cast of twenty-eight are inadequate. This applies not only to the spoken text: the songs, which are important in this play, are not delivered with sufficient confidence and attack.

In the final act, the trial scene – where we get the chalk circle of the title – the problem seems to solve itself. The actors demonstrate how very good they really are. It’s this scene, for instance, where Harris Allen, as the Sergeant, makes his wonderfully oily speech on behalf of his nasty client Natelli.

The play’s protagonist, Grusha, is an excellent Tilly Poynter-Symonds, who is effective throughout, but especially in the encounter by the river with her true love, Simon (James Green). And Ruth Page, as the imperious and greedy Natelli, gives a stand-out performance.

Woven into the deep political intention of the play is a lot of comedy. It’s funny when Jussop (George Collier), supposedly dead, leaps to life; and when he’s being bathed by the unwilling Grusha. And the grasping avarice in the play, peasant as well as aristocratic, is also blackly amusing.

Even those already familiar with the work might gain new insights from this production.

Read the original article here.