Caucasian Chalk Circle
Like Brecht’s Good Woman of Sczechuan, the Caucasian Chalk Circle shows the reader the strengths and weaknesses of sacrifice by a single woman. In this article, Marks allows us to see how Andrei Serban has transformed Brecht’s play into something far from its usual instructiveness. The article claims that Serban, Niky Wolcz and their disciplined group of actors created a satire on the absurdities that occur in the story of the main character, Grusha through its ‘breathless physicality ‘ and ‘poignant freshness’. Marks’ view on Grusha lets us explore the importance of her role and how it is executed in the play.
Mark’s description of Grusha let us recognise her as an unappreciated altruist, whose altruism only creates suspicion from the people around her. It seems like her actions only bring her trouble and heartache from the moment she decides to ‘sneak away’ with the governor’s child but her troubles are caused, more so, by the greed and animosity of those she encounters through her journey in the play, than the worth of her own actions Much better. She was a young servant girl who was proposed to, quite suddenly by a soldier in the middle of a ‘civil rule gone haywire’, yes, good integration of the text found herself in possession of a young child that was the heir to significant power and riches in Grusinia and had to deal with the conflicts and judgements of not conforming to the expectations of the society around her. This makes her an ideal hero for the play, allowing the audience to immediately sympathise and appreciate her actions and for Brecht to make his point about how conformity perpetuates the status quo.
Marks emphasises the moment in the play where Grusha must make a life-altering decision, ‘terrible is the temptation to do good’, but then continues by saying ‘worse is the burden of playing it’. This allows the audience to realise the difficulty of acting out a kind-hearted character such as Grusha in the Brechtian...