Caucasian Chalk Circle
This year's showcase production at the Brisbane Festival is a piece of Bertolt Brecht's Epic Theatre, "The Caucasian Chalk Circle", directed by renowned director, Jarrad Carroll. The following is a transcript of an interview held with Jarrad Carroll regarding not only his choice of "The Caucasian Chalk Circle", but also his views on Bertolt Brecht and the part that he plays in today's modern society.Question 1: As a write and director, Brecht revolutionised theatre practices. What was he trying to achieve through his productions?Bertolt Brecht started his major writing and directing career with one goal: to create a new style of theatre that didn't involve the audience emotionally, but rather intellectually and on a humanistic level. To this effect, he also wanted to motivate the audience, to create an impact on them that would make them leave the theatre with the desire to change the world around them and mould it into something new.This change that Brecht brought to the dramatic world pulled away from the Realism, Naturalism and Romanticism of theatre in his day. To Brecht, these plays were merely an art form to stimulate the audience's emotions for a short period of time. B
The story of Azdak and Grusha intertwine when the greedy governor's wife attempts to obtain the child back from Grusha for the purpose of accessing his estates. Brecht worked in a very different style with his actors than what most people would consider to be normal at the time. The play has been set out to teach the audience something about society at the time and each episode in itself is designed to teach something. His story follows him as he takes the seat of a judge instead of the lock of a prisoner and the judgements he makes in court. Brecht uses this figure to show that a story is being told inside a story (another Brechtian technique). They are all universal factors that most of the general population can find empathy with. Central themes that Brecht often focussed on were war, power and greed. There are many didactic statements that are evident throughout the play. Brecht's main way of doing this was through alienation of the audience, a previously unused technique. While the characters and time periods may not seem relative to today's audience, the characters are merely avatars and embodiments of larger groups, groups that still exist today. Though this play has recurring characters throughout the piece, the story is often disjointed throughout, preventing the audience from forming an emotional link with the characters, namely Grusha, Azdak and Simon, therefore alienating the audience from emotional contact with the play, once again forcing them to engage their minds, something that Brecht strived for. The first is the story of Grusha, a servant to the Governor's wife, who adopts her child when the governor's wife is forced to flee and leaves the baby.
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Acceptance Essays
