Review “The Caucasian Chalk Circle”

Ivan Kapkov
IB Literature & Performance
Ms. Guarino


Review  “The Caucasian Chalk Circle”
On Friday 11/11/17 I visited a play that was adapted by my classmates. The name of the play is “The Caucasian Chalk Circle” by Bertolt Brecht written in 1944 while he was living in America. Interesting fact about the performance is that it was initially made for Broadway, but the play didn’t go that far so students started presenting it in their schools and colleges. The play was initially translated by Eric Bentley. This play is based on the aftermath of WWII, in which the “villagers” are complaining on who will control the valley. This play focuses on an act of true love and courage performed by a servant girl named Grusha Vachnadze and how she is judged by society regarding to her choices. There are two parts of the story: Part I is the story of Grisha's lifestyle and the difficult choices she must make to survive with the baby, while Part II follows and explains the career of Azdak, the judge who must represent Grisha's on her verdict on her actions. “The Caucasian Chalk Circle” wasn't  popular in the United States until the 1950s when it took place in the first professional production at at Hedgerow Theater in Philadelphia in 1948. This play was really important particularly for 3 senior students: Sam Weed, Amalia Gutierrez, & David Mathisson because of their journey with CA theater.
        This play contains  characters as well as 8 at the backstage “crew”. The characters are: Azdak “Peter”, Simon Chachava “Aaron”, Grusha Vachnadze “Sam”, The singer “Amalia “, Shalva/Ludovico “ David Mathisson “, Natella Abashvili/ Corporal “Linda”, Georgi Abashvili/Peasant “Jason”, Prince Kazbeki “ Erin King”, Shawwa/Peasant “Zoe Genden”, Ironshirt/Maid/Doctor “Helen”, Maid / Mother- in - law “Krystal”. This play doesn’t want its audience to feel likes it’s something real, it wants you to be aware that you are watching staged performance. They didn’t want us to connect our feelings with the characters or any of the events in the play, but what they wanted us to see is the corruption and injustice from the system that describes the action. The actors while performing this play wanted audience to see the corruption and injustice around them. This play was made to provoke people into taking action against it after the play. All the characters in this play were different from each other, some in the negative way like Ironshirt, some in the positive like Grusha. This play itself is unusual because everything starts with a negative attitude and you think that it’s going to end the same way but  it has a relatively happy ending; everything works out for Grusha. From the entire play the character that actually impressed me is Grusha acted by “Sam”. Grucha showed me the soul of the play, Sam formed her character in the way that she could express all of her feelings and show the audience the meaning of her character.

  This play was well formed and produced, it was a pleasure to see some of my classmates in this play and how they worked. The adaptation  of this play was incredible, you could see the differences from the original play. The chemistry between the actors was really, you could see they way that they hold on to each other and helped each other to make the play better and more exciting.


1. “It was first instead and premiered by students at Carleton College in Northfield, Minnesota in 1948.”


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