Review Of Fall Play

Baby Mommy Talk

Review of Cheshire Academy Blackbox Theater’s  “The Caucasian Chalk Circle” By Bertolt Brecht, Directed by Marc Aronson November 9-11, 2017Cheshire Academy, Cheshire

Casts:

Ironshirt/ Maid/ Doctor: Huijin Zheng

Maid/ Mother-in-law: Krystal Charter

Grusha Vashnadze: Samantha Weed

Azdak: Yuheng Deng

The singer: Amalia Gutierrez

Simon Shashava: Yuanjun Luo

Shalva/ Ludovico: David Mathisson

Natella Abashwili: Jiaxin Li

Georgi Abashwili: Zhengxian Lin

Prince Kazbeki: Erin King

The play starts from the meeting of the all characters, they argue about the who will be the dominator of the valley. Everyone sits there to get a piece of cheese during the meeting which is a foreshadowing. The scene soon turns to the governor, Georgi Abashwili is rich and having a wife who is Natella Abashwili. Their baby is just born and always being taken care by the groups of maids. Natella still has a bad attitude toward those maids, when she hears the message of her husband's death, he chooses to leave his baby and protect her all possessions. Therefore, her daughter is kept by the maid Grusha Vashnadze. This child is named Michael, her mom comes back and wants to take her back several years later when the war is ended. Being a guardian who adopts a child for many years, Grusha absolutely doesn't want to leave this child back to her mom. On the one hand, she knows Natella isn't a responsible mom, on the other hand, she sacrifices for this child too much since she even marries with a peasant. Grusha decides to have a trial to take her child back while the man Azdak who helps the duke Shalva hides in his home. Azdak then gets a chance to be a judge in that trail to decide the belonging of the child. He uses a competition to judge who will have the responsibility to feed this child. Eventually, he chooses to give the authority to Grusha because her behaviors deserve it. Finally, Grusha also has the life she wants that is engaging with a soldier.

The background of this story is based on WWII, which is the time that filling with turbulence. Everyone is living for themselves, some person is chasing for wealthy, someone is hunting for official position. In this play, an innocent infant suffers from the pain of losing her parents. However, the love is highlighted at that time with unfair and violence. Grusha is a symbol that only few person could be same as her. A woman who donates her life to a baby but giving up her engagement with Mr. Right. A sincere heart of chasing for love in this indifferent world is the most precious thing.

At the beginning of the play, everyone's chair is set in an oval shape, the advantage of that has a broad vision. Most of the audience can see the most characters in the first scene which is important that always reveals one's personality. In the scene of maids caring the baby, Grusha as an essential character is standing on one side, while the other maids are on the other side. It highlights the importance of that role and prepares for the progress of the story. Soldiers and maids are wearing the same green shirts, soldiers wear the same green helmet. Both clothes support an atmosphere of the great war. Moreover, Natella, Georgi, and Azdak in the last scene wear the unique dress since they are living in the higher status. The final scene of the trial is vivid that Azdak sits on the more elevated table because he is the judge.

The person who gives me the best impression is Azdak that is acted by Peter Deng. In the last half of the story, he kills it and serves a small man intoxicated by chance. When he helps the duke the leave, it is direct to feel that a peasant has a higher status if someone is asking him for help. He looks the duke down and askes him to eat cheese like a beggar. Here is a relationship with the beginning that everyone can enjoy the cheese equally while it changes in the end. When he becomes the judge, he looks getting dizzy with success, he even jokes on the audience by wearing a wig. Personally, Peter deserves the best actor in this play, he acts fluently but not exaggerating too much which feels comfortable.

Overall, I consider that this play is good. One of the reasons that the play is not that realistic. Some major plots are going dramatic, but it is easy to accept and predict. The advantage of that is making me feel satisfied while the play goes. Everyone is expecting to see Grusha take this child. Also, everyone is hoping to have a good ending with the failure of Natella. Expectedly, they are all happened in the end. From this drama, I learn a lot of pleasing audiences. As far as I concerned, this is a needed skill for every director.