THE CAUCASIAN CHALK CIRCLE To 29 November.
Tour.
THE CAUCASIAN CHALK CIRCLE
by Bertolt Brecht in a new translation by Alistair Beaton.
Shared Experience Tour to 29 November 2009.
Runs 2h 45min One interval.
Review: Timothy Ramsden 21 October at Richmond Theatre.
A good night out, and a good deal to think about.
Even more than Mother Courage, this is the play which persuasively argues the case that ‘Brecht’s’ plays were largely scripted by his various female associates. For Grusha, the servant-girl whose story fills the first section of the action, is a woman understood from the inside.
Nancy Meckler’s Shared Experience production swings along in Brechtian vein, but it’s the vigour and spirit that matter, not point-by-point adherence to a stated style. And what shines through all the upheaval of the action is the human spirit, most illuminated by Matti Houghton’s tough, loving Yorkshire lass of a Grusha (the show began at Leeds-based co-producers, West Yorkshire Playhouse).
She’s a shy girl, shocked her soldier-lover saw her dip her legs in the river. Yet from the moment she takes a deposed Governor’s baby to safety, after the mother had fled with her rich clothes, Grusha finds in herself the strength to feed her love for the child. She effectively becomes his mother before a culmination where she’s torn in two, preferring to lose the boy than harm him, yet unable to bear the loss.
By this time she’s up against the play’s other protagonist, poacher-turned-drunken-judge Azdak. And the contrast’s plain. As they stand beside each other, her fate in his hands, James Clyde’s finely-played Azdak is a magnificent stage creation, Houghton’s beautifully-delineated Grusha the soul of humanity.
Throughout, the action’s swept along with few limitations – the community chorus only fitfully integrated, the prologue helpfully modernised to the age of international commissions but still awkward in setting-up the play-within-a-play. And performing a huge script in under three hours unavoidably means skating over some moments and omitting others.
All that’s minor compared with the sweep and clarity of a production where each actor is given the space to create vivid, comic, often briefly seen, characters. So, Christian Patterson contrasts the Fat Prince’s quiet, confident arrogance with henpecked husband Lavrenti’s apologetic kindness, while creating a sense of a conflict-zone Innkeeper in a few lines. But everyone’s very good and Meckler comes as near as possible to squaring the circle of providing political ideas and theatrical entertainment.
Governor’s Wife/Aniko: Josephine Butler.
Singer/Azdak: James Clyde.
Grusha: Matti Houghton.
Adjutant/Monk/Shauva: Steven Meo.
Fat Prince/Lavrenti/Innkeeper: Christian Patterson.
Cook/Jussup’s Mother/Farmer’s Wife: Clare Perkins.
Musician/Ludovica/Doctor: Katherine Toy.
Simon/Doctor: Peter Bankolé.
Governor/Sergeant/Jussup: Nicholas Asbury.
Horseman/Nephew/Bandit: Jed Aukin.
Percussion: Tim Farmer.
Director: Nancy Meckler.
Designer: Colin Richmond.
Lighting: Chris Davey.
Sound: Mic Pool.
Music: Ilona Sekacz.
Movement: Liz Ranken.
Voice: Annemette Verspeak.
Dialect: Majella Hurley.
Puppet trainer: Liz Walker.
Fight director: Kate Waters.
Literary consultant: Martin Hennig.
Chorus director: Derek Barnes.
Assistant director: Eleanor While.
2009-10-23 17:16:56