Bertolt Brecht was born February 10, 1898 in Augsberg, Bavaria. He began writing early in his life, concentrating on poetry, and was first published in 1914. During World War I, Brecht attended Munich University, where he first stepped into the world of the theatre. In 1918, he wrote his first full-length play, Baal, whose title character, some have argued, was an early template for Brecht’s later creation, Judge Azdak, from the Caucasian Chalk Circle. Brecht moved, in 1924, to Berlin, where he established himself as a major playwright. It was in Berlin that he met Kurt Weill, and the two of them achieved great fame on collaborations such as The Threepenny Opera and The Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny. By this time, Brecht’s concepts of the Epic Theatre were in full display.
It was in the late 1920’s that Brecht began a life-long commitment to Marxism. This did not put him in good graces with the emerging Nazi Party, and when Hitler took power in 1933, Bertolt Brecht wisely fled the country. He first took exile in neighboring Denmark, hoping that Hitler’s rule would be short-lived. However, with the growing Nazi threat, Brecht had no choice to move further away, first to Sweden, and then to the U.S. (by way of Russia). He resided in Santa Monica, California, in the shadow of Hollywood, and even attempted to break into the movie industry while there. Movie studios had no idea how to work with the playwright, and, not surprisingly, Brecht made little inroads. Of Hollywood, Brecht commented, “The intellectual isolation here is enormous.” His outspoken views of Socialism made him few friends, as well. In 1947, the House Unamerican Activities Committee subpoenaed Brecht to answer charges of his allegiance to Communism. On October 30, 1947, Brecht spoke before the committee. The next day, he departed the U.S. for Europe. Interestingly, it was during Brecht’s years of exile that he created what are considered by many his greatest plays: The Life of Galileo (1938-9); Mother Courage and Her Children (1939); The Good Woman of Szechwan (1938-40); and The Caucasian Chalk Circle (1944-5).
After a year in Switzerland, Brecht was invited to return to Berlin by communists in East Germany. By 1949, he had made East Germany his home, where he was given his own theatre, and his own theatre company, the Berliner Ensemble. He wrote few plays in his final years, instead directing and working with the younger, up-and-coming talent. He passed away of a heart attack on August 14, 1956 at the age of 58. Brecht left behind dozens of plays, books of poetry, and an enduring legacy of his unique vision for the theatre.
THE EPIC THEATRE
Brecht is credited as beginning the movement known as ‘Epic Theatre’, although he preferred the term ‘Dialectical Theatre’, as that description suggested the elements of argument and discussion, crucial to Brecht’s vision. He felt that theatre was a place to present ideas, and that ideas superseded other purposes of the theatre: entertainment, storytelling, emotional manipulation, and even the semblance of reality. He felt it was necessary for audiences to constantly be aware that they were in a theatre, and he was a strong advocate for verfremdungseffekt, or “the alienation effect”, which was the opposite of the more traditional “suspension of disbelief”. To this end, he would incorporate devices designed to distance the audience from the performance: choruses; placards announcing the title and plot of upcoming scenes; music & songs; simple, bare, non-realistic sets. Actors frequently played multiple roles, and regularly broke the fourth wall illusion, speaking directly to the audience. By not allowing his audience to become too emotionally invested in the characters or plot, he could keep the social themes at the forefront.
SOURCE MATERIAL FOR
THE CAUCASIAN CHALK CIRCLE
THE BIBLE
I KINGS 3 – “KING SOLOMON’S WISDOM IN JUDGMENT”
After praying for and receiving wisdom to rule from God, King Solomon is presented a trial for judgment. Two prostitutes come before him, each claiming to be the mother of a baby boy. Both women had given birth, but one of the children had passed away. Now both say the deceased child belongs to the other. To find the true mother, Solomon takes a sword and orders that the living child be cut in two, with one-half going to each mother. One of the mothers agrees to this ruling; the other gives up her claim, so that the child shall remain alive. From this, Solomon knows the woman who would not allow the boy to die is the real mother.
THE CHALK CIRCLE
A CHINESE ZAJU VERSE PLAY BY LI QIANFU (LI XINGDAO)
The zaju verse play is a classical form of Chinese theatre, consisting of four acts and a prologue. The Chalk Circle, written during the Yuan dynasty (1259-1368), concerns a young woman, Hai-tang, who, after being sold into a house of prostitution, is rescued by Ma Chun-shing, a wealthy tax-collector. He takes her as his second wife, and she soon gives him his only child, a son. Ah-Siu, the first wife, is jealous. So, she accuses Hai-tang of adultery, kills Ma by poison, blames Hai-tang of the murder, and then claims the child as her own, so that she may inherit Ma’s wealth. Before Hai-tang is about to be hanged, an Emperor decides on a test: he draws a chalk circle on the ground, and puts the child and the two women within it. The women are ordered to take hold of the child and pull, to determine the mother. When Hai-tang refuses to hurt the child in this way, the Emperor knows she is the true mother.
(NOTE: This play was translated into German by Klabund in 1924, a contemporary and acquaintance of Brecht’s. In Klabund’s version, the Emperor and Hai-tang marry at the end of the play.)
DER AUGSBURGER KREIDEKREIS (“THE AUGSBURG CHALK CIRCLE”)
BY BERTOLT BRECHT
This short story, written by Brecht in 1940, is quite similar yet quite different from the Caucasian Chalk Circle, written a half-decade later.
The story takes place in Augsburg during the Thirty Years War (the same setting as his play, Mother Courage and Her Children). A Swiss Protestant named Zingli owns a tannery and leather business. Friends advise the man to flee the town as Catholic soldiers are soon to invade. But, when the troops finally march in, Zingli and his family have not yet left. Zingli hides, but is found and murdered. His wife, Frau Zingli, has spent so much time packing her fine clothing and jewelry that she is forced to escape, abandoning her child at their home. A servant girl of the house, Anna, discovers the child, and, after the soldiers have moved on, she attempts to return the child to its mother. She visits Frau Zingli’s uncle’s home, where she is told that the mother is no longer there, and that they will do nothing for the child. Before leaving, Anna notices someone silently watching her from behind the window; she is convinced Frau Zingli is within, and has repudiated her own son. The bond between Anna and the boy grows, and finally, she takes him with her to her brother’s home in the village of Grossaitingen. A peasant, her brother has married a woman with a farm and servants. The wife is suspicious of the woman and child who’ve suddenly shown up on her doorstep, so Anna claims the child as her own. She further lies by saying she is married to a man working a mill in a distant village, and that this husband is expecting Anna and son to join him in a few weeks. This lie appeases the peasant’s wife for awhile, but as time passes, her suspicions return. Finally, the peasant brother concocts a plan to marry off his sister to a dying man in a neighboring village. His death is imminent, and so a death certificate will surely allow Anna to continue living on as a widow at her brother’s farm. The wedding takes place and Anna returns with her brother to his farm. Time passes, without the death certificate appearing. Finally, the brother travels back to find that the man has recovered from his grave illness. This news troubles Anna. The man, Otterer by name, soon meets secretly with Anna. Anna does not like the man, and returns to her brother’s home. Some time later, Otterer shows up at the farm, intending to “fetch” her back to his home. She refuses to accompany him. He is about to leave when the brother and his wife come home. The wife is naturally curious about him, but Otterer becomes withdrawn in the presence of the peasant, who, of course, knows the truth of the situation. The wife offers him lodging for the night, but Otterer leaves. That night, Anna grows quite ill. The sickness lasts for weeks, during which Otterer returns and carts her and the child away. She is too weak to protest. Eventually, her health and strength return. At that point, she attempts to escape with the child, but it fails and she willingly returns to Otterer’s place, where she and the child live for several years. One day, after returning from the village, she finds her son missing, that “a grandly dressed lady had driven up in a coach and taken [him] away”. Anna immediately sets off for Augsburg. She tells the authorities that her child has been stolen. A trial is set. The “most exceptional” judge is named Ignaz Dollinger, whose rulings are known for being unusual. After hearing testimonies by both sides (in which both Frau Zingli and Anna lie to the court), he decides to settle the matter with the chalk circle test. After only one test, in which Frau Zingli “tore the child out of the chalk circle”, Dollinger recognizes Anna as the true mother.
(NOTE: In the Biblical verses and the Chinese Chalk Circle play, it is the natural mother who ends up back with her child. In Brecht’s twist of the old tale, he awards the other woman custody of the child, suggesting to us that the blood bond is not necessarily the most maternal- a very modern notion.)
