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S - , . - v - ■ ... - . . U 0) f rwiKiffi ' ■ f t ^ j IVs Been 41 Years Since It Was Written by Brecht: Caucasian Chalk Circle' is a Sign of Life BY STEVEN HART A peculiar feature of Brecht’s play, “The Caucasian Chalk Circle,” is that its peasant heroine ends up the victor. Written in 1944 while Brecht was in California, it is in teresting to speculate on whether the im pending end of the war somehow seemed to herald for him a new era of classless humanitarianism. Forty-one years after the play’s composi tion, the current production concludes with a good deal of irony a s the Grusha in the i Solomon-hke test of the circle, yields up her adopted son to his real mother in order to protect him from harm. “The ties that bind” here are not those of nature, or even those of conventipnal virtue, but the ones produced by a iifurturing spirit that will en- I dure extreme hardship in the name of loyal- I ty. “The Caucasian Chalk Circle” is a parable of power. Grusha takes charge of the son of a deposed governor when he is abandoned out of self-interest by both his mother and his nurse. The play is set in the mythical land of Grusinia, between Europe and Asia, and takes the form of a moral as well as an actual journey. Grusha, played simply and forcefully by Peggy Pettit, takes up the child despite the admonition of her fellow peasants that he is a danger to her, and that she is being a fool. Grusha refuses to abandon the child and sets off to find it a home and herself a place to wait ouVthe civil war that follows the downfall of the governor. Before the child is finally designated as hers, she is forced to travel through hostile mountains, all along the way facing the threat of capture, rape, death and the loss of the child to her own poverty. Most of these dangers arise specifically because of her gender which inhibits her ability to function as a free agent in her society; and yet, as the play and the production seem to argue, it is this factor of her nature that makes her willing to take on the <!:hild in the first place. Director Denny Partridge seems to focus on the gender related aspects of the parable. The characters are generalized, as indeed they should be, to suggest not that women are the only gender capable of nur turing, but that humankind has a nurturing side so long as it is not accuiturated away. For example, Grusha is forced, on the mer cy of her sistei^in-law, Aniko (nicely done by Melody James), who does not want her in the house because she believes the child is a bastard. As Grusha’s brother points out, Aniko *'is religious” meaning that her sense of moral order according to religion supercedes her sense of compassion. This Modern Times Theatre production addresses these issues in a calm, laid-back manner that gives you room to think, The play argues that in a society where you have no choice but to be going up or going / •'y U ' I From left: Melody James, Cora Hook, Peggy Pettltt, Lizzie Oleaker, Karen Lelner and Anne Barclay. (Rosegg Photo) down in a hierarchy, and where competition is accepted as an absolute of human nature, only the people at the bottom of the heap can possibly have time to consider the needs of their fellow men. They, of course, are unable even to maintain themselves much less do anything about those who suf fer around them. This latter point is illustrated by the mo ment when Grusha, a virgin, tries to feed the infant from her own breast in the hope that the illusion of milk will somehow nourish the child in a way that she, however willing, cannot. Ms. Pettit demurely turns her back on th6 audience and tries helpless ly to twist a drop of milk from her breast to feed the child. But, as is always the point in Brecht, the belly is real and must be fed with real food, which the most charitable of hearts, without the means, cannot. Brecht liked the parable form because he could do battle with a number of things, sometimes seemingly unrelated, at once. “The Caucasian Chalk Circle” is staged here with scenery (Remy Ussier) and costumes (Denny Partridge) that have a look of a Sunday School Bible class textbook full of colorful pastels and flowing robes. While the main theme deals with Issues of individual and collective power, at the same time morality, and in particular Christian morality, is examined. Grusha's poverty Is what gives her empathy for the child’s plight. Dale Byam plays a peasant woman who is only slightly better off, with whom Grusha tries to leave the child to save it from starvation. But so deeply concerned is the old peasant woman with hanging onto her meager worldly all, that she simply cannot afford compassion. Brecht’s point is the opposite of the Bible’s in that even faith and virtue will not get the rich man through the eye of the nee dle. Poverty does not make Grusha compas sionate; power and property prevent it from coming to fruition in others. The ex ception that proves the rule in the play is the judge, Azdak, played with charming Eastside elan by Steve Friedman. During the revolution produced by the governor’s downfall, Azdak was promoted to judge on the way to his own trial when the previous judge was lynched by some drunken soldiers. Just before the chalk circle scene, he is again plucked from the rope by a drunken act of kindness in saving the life of the Grand Duke when he was temporarily on the run during the civil war. Azdak is a scoundrel by all conventional standards; he takes bribes, is a bit of a lecher, and is bombed most of the time. But he has a common sense notion of justice through his absurdly fuddled judgements, which dictates that humanity is best served by the least injury to Individuals and the greatest benefit to society as a whole. Thus Grusha, the loving and loyal surrogate mother, is given custody because she will help the child grow, and learn. Azdak’s sense of justice is captured in Brecht’s sim ple, tasty line, “What there is shall go to those that are good to it.” The good is simp ly that which allows the intention to nourish to be fulfilled. In the real world, it is not enough to have a good heart. Now here we are in this era when com petition is again being venerated, and tradi tional virtues extolled in a “back to basics” approach to public morality. Jimmy Carter spends a bit of this summer on the Lower East Side fixing up a building that will not house even a measurable fraction of the New Yorkers who need housing. Ronald Reagan applauds such volunteerism as an antedote to “big government” which was created to handle, however ineptly, the big problems, like homelessness, that now seem to have disappeared from the official agen da. As Grusha understands, below a certain point in a competition, the trickle does not descend, or is housing supposed to trickle down to the destitute? Brecht might ask if the competition for profits in New York’s real estate market were not the cause of the problem In the first place. “THE CAUCASIAN CHALK CHICLE” Washington Square Methodist Church, 135 W. 4th St. for reservations: 664-8033 May 16 , 10B6, THE VILLAGER. Pago 0
