The Caucasian Chalk Circle

The Caucasian Chalk Circle
Written by	Bertolt Brecht
Date premiered	1948
Place premiered	Carleton College, Minnesota, USA
Original language	German (premiered in English)
Subject	Parenthood, property, war
Genre	Epic theatre
Setting	Georgia

The Caucasian Chalk Circle (German: Der Kaukasische Kreidekreis) is a play by the German modernist playwright Bertolt Brecht. An example of Brecht's epic theatre, the play is a parable about a peasant girl who rescues a baby and becomes a better mother than its wealthy natural parents.

The play was written in 1944 while Brecht was living in the United States. It was translated into English by Brecht's friend and admirer Eric Bentley and its world premiere was a student production at Carleton College, Northfield, Minnesota, in 1948. Its first professional production was at the Hedgerow Theatre, Philadelphia, directed by Bentley. Its German premiere by the Berliner Ensemble was on October 7th, 1954 at the Theater am Schiffbauerdamm, in Berlin. The most known version of Caucasian Chalk Circle is the Georgian version of the Rustaveli State Drama Theatre by Robert Sturua; this version is also considered by many critics worldwide to be the best.The Caucasian Chalk Circle is now considered one of Brecht's most celebrated works and is one of the most regularly performed 'German' plays.

The play is a reworking of Brecht's earlier short story, Der Augsburger Kreidekreis; both derive from the 14th-century Chinese play Circle of Chalk by Li Xingdao. However, the story bears great resemblance to the Buddhist Jataka story "Mahaushadha".

Brecht, in his typical anti-realist style, uses the device of a "play within a play". The "frame" play is set in the Soviet Union around the end of the Second World War. It shows a dispute between two communes, the Collective Fruit Farm Galinsk fruit growing commune and the Collective Goat Farmers, over who is to own and manage an area of farm land after the Nazis have retreated from a village and left it abandoned. A parable has been organised by one group, an old folk tale, to be played out to cast light on the dispute. The Singer, Arkadi Tcheidse, arrives with his band of musicians, then tells the peasants the fable, which forms the main narrative, and intertwines throughout much of the play. The Singer often takes on the thoughts of characters, enhances the more dramatic scenes with stronger narration than simple dialogue, and is responsible for most scene and time changes. Often the role is accompanied by several "musicians" (which usually incorporate music into the play itself) that help the Singer keep the play running smoothly. At the end he states that the land should go to those who will use it most productively, the fruit growers, and not those who had previous ownership.

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