The Lace Market Youth Theatre will present Bertolt Brecht’s The Caucasian Chalk Circle. Director Max Bromley explains why...

It is Bertolt Brecht’s greatest play and is the clearest demonstration of his theatrical genius.

The simple story of a kitchen maid, Grusha, who rescues a baby in the confusion of revolution and eventually finds herself being emotionally torn apart when the child’s birth mother claims it back, becomes in Brecht’s hands a masterful demonstration of ‘epic’ theatre.

That it is being performed by 28 incredibly talented members of The Lace Market Youth Theatre, aged between 11 and 18, adds to the dramatic excitement.

The energy and enthusiasm the cast has brought to the production from the moment we started rehearsals last year and the growing realisation amongst them about the quality of the piece has been wonderful to see, and the writing is proving to be superb foundation for some potentially brilliant performances.

The ‘epic’ quality of the play has proved challenging: - 84+ named speaking parts, the costuming that entails: trying to comply with the author’s very specific demands on staging and properties - and then attempting to squeeze a large cast into a relatively small space

I suppose the most interesting thing about directing the play has been coping with its nature. It’s a story play, a journey play – the audience follows one character, Grusha, on her travels with the rescued child. There is something of the Cervantes about the play in its picaresque nature. Grusha’s feelings for the child change but essentially we see things happening to her; how she is affected by the characters she meets and where she finds herself.

Brecht was a great admirer of Shakespeare. Amongst the carnage in ‘Macbeth’ we suddenly meet the Porter. Brecht repeatedly employs such similar sudden changes. Perhaps this is the main demonstration of that word. Verfremdungseffekt. He’s not alienating his audience, or trying to distance them. Rather he is keeping them awake, alert, and intellectually engaged with the tale. So, in ‘Caucasian’ we switch from farce to horror, to moments of great tenderness to moments of revulsion.

One thing that has most certainly helped if the translation we are using. It is always difficult when you work with a text which is not in the native language. The audience is bound to miss things the native speaker would pick up. Shared Experience brought a production of the play to Nottingham Playhouse in 2009 in a new translation by Alistair Beaton and it is this version we are using. He writes, ’Brecht’s use of language is vigorous, bold and sometimes bawdy. I have not shied away from rendering those qualities into English. I have also tried to capture Brecht’s vigorous sense of humour. The Caucasian Chalk Circle is a great play, and great plays can also have moments of great comedy.’

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