The Caucasian Chalk Circle

Berolt Brecht (1898-1956) wrote The Caucasian Chalk Circle in the United States in 1944 while exiled from Nazi Germany.  It remained unproduced until Carleton College in Minnesota staged the play in 1948.  Considered one of Brecht's most important works, The Caucasian Chalk Circle is usually identified as one of his Epic Theatre plays.  In this mode of theatrical presentation (also called "dialectical theatre"), characters represent opposing sides of an argument, presenting ideas to the audience with the intention that they make judgments on them.  In Brecht's view, Epic Theatre could only be successful if the audience was prevented from becoming "lost" in the performance--what Samuel Taylor Coleridge called "suspending their disbelief."  The audience members, Brecht felt, should always be aware that they are watching a play.  In his theoretical wiritngs he called this approach verfremdungseffekt, usually translated "alienation effect." 

In order to explore this approach we have endeavored to produce a theatre-in-the-round atmosphere in Salomon Theatre where the audience members become, by virtue of their position amongst the actors, a part of the action rather than passive viewers of it.  The "play-within-a-play" structure of the piece also gives the actors the opportunity to explore a presentational approach to their work.  As the Storyteller unfolds the folktale, to the accompaniment of original music composed for our production, the actors emulate the many characters of the tale, often through the use of masks, while consciously acknowledging the audience's gaze.

The Caucasian Chalk Circle is, for intents and purposes, a parable based on the narrative of the "Judgment of Solomon" (I Kings 3:16-28) and on the 14^th-century Chinese play Hui Lan Ji, by Li Xindao.¹  The play is set in a Russian village in the Caucasus Mountains immediately following the Second World War.  The Caucasus, a region separating Asia Minor from Russia, is bordered by the Black Sea to the West, Turkey to the southwest, the Caspian Sea to the east, and Iran to the south.  Today, the Caucasus has comprised the independent states of Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia.  In the play, two Soviet cooperatives are vying for rights to the farmland surrounding an archetypal war-ravaged village, and government officials must decide following a debate which group will most effectively use the fields.  At the end of the debate all agree on a solution and in celebration of the agreement a play is performed in which the cooperative members act out the story of the chalk circle. 
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¹  Because of his Marxist perspective, Brecht preferred the German term gleichnis--often translated as "mirror image"--to parable, with its moral and spiritual connotations, but he advised Eric Bentley to use the title Parables for the Theatre for a volume including this play.


 

London Theatre Offerings

During the summer and fall of 2008, the Department of Communication and Theatre will again be offering courses of study in London.

The summer five week term will offer courses in British culture, communication theories and research, intercultural communication and independent study. The program will also allow students to experience numerous plays and musicals in London and Stratford upon Avon as well as providing the opportunity for independent travel..

A second course of study will also be offered in the Fall off 2008. Students on this trip will be guided in their studies and tours by PLNU faculty Ronda and Carl Winderl.

The intent of the Fall program is to allow PLNU students the opportunity to complete a semester of 12-17 credits in Great Britain (principally London) with the vast cultural resources of the country easily accessible and incorporated into their various courses. Creative scheduling will provide several long weekend breaks to facilitate travel throughout Great Britain and Europe, with more extensive independent travel possible after courses conclude in late November.

Courses will offer/include extensive exposure to the museums, concert halls, professional and fringe theatres, political and historic sites. Several overnight visits will be provided as part of the coursework, to locations such as Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwick Castle, Hampton Court Palace, Bath and Stonehenge.