The Caucasian Chalk Circle - Exploration Notes

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The Caucasian Chalk Circle – Exploration Notes

Contextualising the play

The Caucasian Chalk Circle was written by Bertolt Brecht in 1944 whilst he was living in America. Originally written for Broadway, it never quite made it there, but instead was premiered by students at Carleton College in Northfield, Minnesota in 1948. The first professional production of the play took place in 1948 at the Hedgerow Theatre in Philadelphia, and it soon thereafter became one of Brecht's most popular pieces in the United States.

Brecht's main inspiration and source for the play was most likely Klabund's adaptation of the Circle of Chalk by Li Xingdao, an ancient Chinese play that was written in 1300 A.D. He adapted the story into parable form and changed the setting from China to 1940s Soviet Georgia. He may have changed the setting in order to embed communist themes – his main message seems to be whoever can make the best use of resources in order to provide for others deserves to get those resources, as vividly illustrated in the play's prologue. The play is also loosely based on the Biblical story of Solomon and the baby, in which two women came to Solomon claiming to be mothers of the same child, so he ordered that the baby should be cut in half and given to both of them. The real mother chose to instead give the whole baby to the other woman to prevent the baby's death, and it was in this manner revealed to Solomon that the true mother was she who wanted the baby to survive. It's also believed that the life of Azdak the drunken judge parallels the story of Christ, which is just one of the play's many subtle anti-religious connotations.

Brecht's communist ideas landed him in trouble with a paranoid McCarthyist American government in 1947, when he was forced to appear before the House Un-American Activities Committee in Washington. Because of this, publication of the play's incredibly communist-themed prologue was temporarily postponed at his request, and he moved to Switzerland the next day.

Events in Brecht's early life were also significant influences on his works. At school, he was heavily exposed to the writings of Nietzsche and other great thinkers, which would have encouraged him to develop his own philosophical and political ideas. He also read much of Luther's German translation of the Bible at a young age, which he often references throughout his works. He also later studied Chinese, Japanese and Indian theatre, focused heavily on Shakespeare and other Elizabethans, and was fascinated by Greek tragedy.

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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 ...

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