Love moves mountains: The Caucasian Chalk Circle (The Rose Theatre, Kingston upon Thames)

The parallels with the current Russian-Ukranian war, the corruption, rising socio-economic crises, problems with refugees, class system..... and the strength of woman's love, for a man, for a child, and for people. Bertold Brecht's drama The Caucasian Chalk Circle, adapted by Steve Waters, has it all.

This epic and very energetic adaptation premièred at the Rose Theatre (Kingston upon Thames) last week, on the 4th of October 2022). I attended the Press Night on the 6th of October, where the director Christopher Haydon (who is also Rose's creative director) introduced his thoughts and Rose's intake on how best to connect it to the audience of our time.

I salute this production, which dealt with Brecht's play, and the intricate issues very diligently and with high standards. The "Play-within-play", consisting of many episodic short stories with many characters (all of them brilliantly portrayed by only 9 actors), brought broad humanity and a punctual political situation under one roof.

On one side there is a woman, saving a child, taking the risks every conscientious mother would take - even sacrificing her own love, on the other side, there are "circumstances" (as there always are), causing the problems. The play is like a mosaic, composed of many episodes presenting different "snapshots" of people living in the same period of life. The glue, holding the pieces together, is "The singer" (played by Zoe West), who advances and explains the story through the music and who accompanies (playing the guitar) other actors singing bigger musical numbers. The Singer, who sometimes steps "outside" the play, commenting on its complexity and joking about her own role(s) within it, connects directly with the public.

This approach to writing reminds me of Shakespeare: Brecht, as well as Shakespeare, juggles between the primary (serious) story and the secondary (often more humorous) situations, using secondary characters and short episodes to digress from the main story in order to provide a platform for richer and deeper socio-economic-politico-cultural talks and (also) for "taking a break" from the seriousness of the play.

The public, who is familiar with such plays, can adapt to this kind of drama fairly quickly. However, I think that, in this particular production, it was perhaps a little too much. Too many secondary characters, which made the play unnecessarily long, and too many musical numbers (sometimes overpowering and tiring rather than calming and letting to digest). Especially in the very dynamic beginning, there was a sudden array of multiple characters, stories, and ideas presented in a very short period of time, enhanced by constant movement and frequent singing on the scene. I had difficulty organizing those thoughts in my mind and understanding what the story was about. It only started to make sense after about half an hour, when the situation calmed down and the main story started to prevail. I think with some thoughtful cuts, the play would breathe a bit better.

The main role of Grusha, a simple village girl, who heroically saves the abandoned baby (condemned to death) and takes many risks, was given to Carrie Hope Fletcher whose fantastic voice could cope with the challenging yet beautiful music score. But Carrie Hope Fletcher was not only the singer, she really was a part of an excellent cast, engaging with her role and playing with the utmost integrity. The "male" strong counterpart was given to Jonathan Slinger, who played the judge. His powerful voice and overall presence elevated the second part of the play, giving it the right dynamics and rhythm.

I'm always astonished to see how much you can achieve with so few material props when they are cleverly used and recycled throughout the whole play. This play was no different: only a few empty beds (made of metal) served as a prison, as judge tribune, as the bridge, as beds, and as other situational equipment. The whole scene was very effectively used and costumes and lightning were very appropriate. Let's just give this play space and some moments for reflection and it can be great.