In performance, Brecht's ideas should definitely be taken into consideration. Aspects of his influences and political ideas are key to interpretation of the characters and sets in the play. Grusha, for example, should be thoroughly kind-hearted and quintessentially good throughout the whole performance, as she is Brecht's “good” character – in most of his plays, there is always one good character that, because of the harshness of the world, is pushed around and abused because of their behaviour; in this play, Grusha is this character. She is also his representation of communism, as shown by the fact that she is awarded the child for her obvious attachment to it and potential to bring it up properly. The sets, too, should be fairly sparse and simple, to further illustrate the theme of communism.
Language
The language used in the Caucasian Chalk Circle often carries multiple meanings and can be interpreted in a number of different ways. Here are a couple of my interpretations:
Vocal Awareness
This is the first scene in which Grusha and Simon are together on stage. I chose it because I can imagine that Simon's lighthearted tone could be mistaken for genuine suspicion by the reader, which would affect the supposed tone and purpose of the scene.
Non-Verbal Communication
Actors can communicate non-verbally in a number of ways. Body language is probably the most prominent method of non-verbal communication, and can be used to great effect in portraying a character's inner-feelings or intentions. Gestus, an acting technique developed by Betolt Brecht himself, is a way of revealing to the audience the feelings and motivations of a character by exhibiting very specific behaviours that would illustrate these things. For example, if a character constantly checked if his wallet was still in his pocket whilst checking the time, it would imply that he's a busy man who places a lot of importance on money – a rich man. Checking his wallet and checking the time are the actions that the audience would form this conclusion from, therefore they are his Gestus. Space is also invaluable in communicating feelings between characters to the audience. If two characters are far apart when having what should be a fairly personal conversation, it implies that they're somewhat cold and distant to one another, whereas if they were close together, it would imply quite the opposite.
Text
Azdak: She looks pretty well fed to me. Pull!
The First Lawyer: What did I say! The bonds of blood!
Azdak: What's the matter with you? You didn't pull!
Grusha: I didn't hold on to him. Your worship, I take back everything I said against you. I ask your forgiveness. If I could just keep him until he can speak properly. He knows only a few words.
Azdak: Don't influence the court! I bet you know only twenty yourself. All right, i'll do the test once more, to make certain.
Direction/Staging
Azdak: Holding both arms outstretched either side of him, with palms open. He has a very composed, dominating, upright posture and is standing bolt upright and very still whilst saying the first sentence. Then, on the words “Pull!”, he should throw his arms to his side to commence the pulling. All of these things signify the justice that he represents.
The First Lawyer: Trying to look as honest as possible. Lots of pointing hand gestures towards The Governor's Wife to prove her innocence.
Azdak: Half-surprised at Grusha; still keeping his judge-like composure, however – points at her on “You didn't pull!”
Grusha: Almost in tears. Pleading as if it were for her own life. Lots of praying. She gets on her knees for the last three sentences in order to show the extent of her desperation.
Azdak: Frowns. More pointing and finger-wagging at Grusha. For the last line, he assumes a more passive stance and moves back into the judge-like arms-in-the-air position.
Characterisation
In epic theatre, characterisation can prove to be rather difficult. According to Brecht, an actor shouldn't become a character, he or she should simply present the character, which is why he developed techniques such as Gestus to assist in this. In class, we carried out an activity designed to assist us in getting used to the idea of presenting and not becoming. We were given words that describe characters in the Caucasian Chalk Circle and then had to portray these words using our bodies.
When portraying Grusha, who is arguably the central character of the play, one should think about the changes that she goes through during the play. At the beginning, she is a servant – she is humble, quite poor, but she gets on with her life – she isn't overjoyed with where she is at the moment, but it could be worse. Then there's the coup, and The Governor's Wife leaves Michael behind for Grusha to find. As soon as Michael calls out for her, she suddenly feels a sense of motherly tenderness for the child, and even though she's not supposed to (“Like booty she took it for herself”) she takes him and cares for him anyway. From this point onwards, she develops a seemingly faultless, headstrong determination – she's now incredibly poor, on the run from the army, taking care of a child that isn't hers, at one point is married to a man who she barely even knows (but still has to do her “wifely duty”), but she never gives up caring for Michael. In this part of the play, she's a much harder woman – mentally and physically – and she continues to show her mental strength in the end of the play when she's willing to give away her the child that she's raised for her entire life just to make sure that it lives.
Director's Interpretation
Our class split into two groups and performed two different extracts from the Caucasian Chalk Circle. My group's performance was fairly simple – a small set and no special lighting, and just a little bit of Spanish guitar music, played by Azdak (to show Azdak's obvious, light-hearted side) whenever the Singer sang; we thought that if the singer merely said the words in the songs rather than singing them, then they wouldn't have their intended effect. We also substituted Azdak's outrageous chair with two human beings, who managed to kneel down and form a kind of throne for Azdak – just the sort of thing i'm sure he would love – to show how, when he's in his judge's gowns, he has power over people.
Visual, Aural and Spacial
In order to bring a play alive, it must be read with a sense of how it would work in a three-dimensional space, and understanding how the addition of visual, aural and spacial elements can change such a space is key to understanding the staging of a play.
Visual elements can include the props and colours used on set, as well as lights, costumes and make up/masks. Behind everything on stage there is a meaning, which means that, for example, if a set is predominantly red, it may possibly denote love or passion or hate and pain – also, if the set's sparse, with a few simple objects scattered around, and the characters costumes are also simple, then this would imply that the location in which the play is set is poor. To understand this, some of the class created costumes for characters in the play and presented them to the rest of the class, and they were judged on whether everybody else thought that the costumes reflected the characters' personality and position.
Aural elements can include music played by actors, background music, sound effects, dialog and any other noises that may be made on stage. Background music can be used to set the tone of a scene, sound effects can be short and sharp noises made by objects being used or struck. Dialog is definitely the most important aural element, as it features in the vast majority of plays; it conveys messages, shows the feelings of characters and is able to evoke emotions in the audience. The musicians in my class got together to create a soundtrack for certain parts of this play in order to fully understand the importance of aural elements – we created a tense song for a tense time in the play, a jaunty, happy tune for a more light-hearted scene and a russian-themed tune for a quintessentially Georgian scene.
Spacial elements are the type of stage used, the locations and levels of stage entrances and exits, and the space between actors and their surroundings. Some of the class designed sets for the play and were judged, similarly to the costumes, on how they would complement the action, and how they reflect what's happening in the play.