Der Kaukasische Kreidekreis

(The Caucasian Chalk Circle) by Bertolt Brecht.

   English language premiere 1948; German premiere 1954. This play employs an ancient narrative convention, namely, establishing the "true" stewardship of a precious resource. In the initial scene of the play the resource is disputed land; as the play-within-the-play convention unfolds, the resource is a child whose maternity is in dispute. The story's basis is a Chinese parable from the 13th century that Klabund had adapted in 1925. Brecht employed it to promote a collectivist thesis: that resources should be allocated to those best suited for their stewardship.

   The play's action revolves around a revolt somewhere in the Caucasus, during which an aristocratic mother abandons her small son, and a serving maid named Gruscha saves the tiny princeling from certain death. Later the biological mother reappears to demand the return of her son; Gruscha has in the meantime endured horrific hardship in her efforts to save the boy. In a humorous trial scene, a drunk named Azdak is assigned to adjudicate the case. He places the child in a circle drawn with chalk and orders the women to wrest the boy from each other. Gruscha gives up the match for fear of harming the child, so Azdak awards the boy to her (much as King Solomon had done in a similar biblical case, 1 Kings 3:16-28). The metaphor then returns to the initial scene of a land dispute, concluding that resources should go to those best able to serve the entire community.

   The play has several arresting scenes, all based on Brecht's eschewal of anything illusionistic; in one, for example, Gruscha with the child clinging to her crosses a steep mountain pass by clambering between two chairs or ladders on stage. Brecht also employed two distinct plots (featuring Gruscha and Azdak separately) and united them only in the trial scene. As in his other major plays, Brecht used songs to interrupt the action and make critical commentary on the ideas under discussion. Most convincing are the characterizations of Gruscha and Azdak; both are abstractions of ideas and neither is mo-tivationally coherent—nor did Brecht intend them to be.