BRECHT'S BITTER
CHALK RETURNS
By Georgia Rowe
artssf.com, the independent observer of San Francisco Bay Area theater,
music
and dance
Week of Feb. 26-March 4, 2010
Vol.
12, No. 168
British director John Doyle, who gave the American
Conservatory Theater an excellent production of “Sweeney Todd” a few
years
back, has returned to San
Francisco
to stage Bertolt Brecht’s “The Caucasian Chalk Circle.”
The production, which opened Feb. 24,
encapsulates all the bitter humor, social commentary and iconoclastic
theatricality that made Brecht one of the 20th century’s most
significant
dramatists. If Doyle’s staging feels
caustic, a little raw and a bit uneven, one suspects that the
playwright
wouldn’t have had it any other way.
The story,
about a servant girl named Grusche who rescues an
abandoned baby and tries against all odds to do right by it, takes
place in a
small princedom embroiled in a bloody war against Persia. Doyle’s production unfolds backstage in a
crumbling theater, with the surroundings resembling any third world
country (or
grimy American inner city.) Exposed
rigging, chain link fences, old crates and rusty pieces of metal are
everywhere; lighting bars swing dangerously overhead.
Air raid sirens and explosions go off at
regular intervals (lighting by Jane Cox, sound by Cliff Caruthers), as
the
actors troop around in a drab mix of military and peasant garb.
Grusche (a
strong, articulate Omoze Idehenre) finds the baby
during a palace coup; its biological mother (a shrill Rene Augesen as
the
Governor’s Wife), in a rush to flee the scene, leaves little Michael
behind. Grusche pledges to wait for a
soldier leaving for the war (a mild Nick Childress as Simon), but is
driven out
of the city and into the mountains where she struggles to survive,
escapes
pursuit, lodges with hostile relatives, and reluctantly agrees to be
married
off to a dying man. Eventually, in the
scene that gives the play its title, Grusche comes before a corrupt
judge (Jack
Willis as Azdak), a latter-day Solomon charged with deciding whether
the baby
should remain with her or be returned to the Governor’s Wife.
It’s an epic
journey.
But Doyle, using a deft new translation by Domenique Lozano,
trims it to
a neat two hours (including one intermission), with some scenes
condensed,
others delivering expository passages as songs (the production features
a fine
original score by Nathaniel Stookey.)
Even at the
reduced running time, there are a few moments
when this “Circle” threatens to stall.
But then it wheezes back to life and yields another wonderful
vignette. Nine actors – Manoel Felciano,
Anthony Fusco, Rod Gnapp, Caroline Hewitt and Gregory Wallace, in
addition to
Idehenre, Augesen, Childress and Willis – play all the parts. It’s all very fluid, incisive, and remarkably
topical (Simon’s line about going off to war for “two or three weeks”
drew an
uneasy laugh from the opening night crowd.)
Brecht must have known that the play’s concerns - lying
politicians,
venal judges, social injustice and war profiteering - wouldn’t be going
out of
style any time soon.
“The Caucasian Chalk Circle,”
presented by the American Conservatory Theater, 415
Geary St., San Francisco.
Through March 14, 2010. Two
hours, with one intermission. For info: 415-749-2228, or go online.
©Georgia Rowe 2010
#
Georgia Rowe is a Bay Area arts
writer. Her work has appeared in Opera News, the San Francisco
Examiner, the San Jose Mercury News, and the Contra Costa Times in
addition to artssf.com.
These critiques appearing several times weekly focus on dance and new
musical creativity in performance, with
forays
into books (by authors of the region), theater and recordings by local
artists as well.
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