Plays 52 - The Caucasian Chalk Circle by Bertolt Brecht

7. The Caucasian Chalk Circle by Bertolt Brecht

The Caucasian Chalk Circle is essentially a tale of motherhood in a time of conflict, which questions the very nature of motherhood and ownership. Two neighbouring Georgian communities who have been displaced by the Second World War, meet to negotiate over a piece of land whose ownership is in doubt. One group are goat farmers and the other fruit farmers. The play-within-a-play "The Chalk Circle" is presented by the hosting group as an attempt to resolve the conflict. It is notable that during the presentation of "The Chalk Circle", the scene changes are also performed, thereby distancing the audience somewhat.

"The Chalk Circle" starts with the Governor of a city; Georgi Abashvili, his wife Natella and entourage taking part in Easter Sunday celebrations. The family is shown to be decadently materialistic, in denial and concerning themselves with trivialities in the midst of an oncoming conflagration. Aggressors descend on the city and eventually kill the Governor, nailing his head to a post in the town square. His wife, persuaded by her attendants, attempts to flee but procrastinates. She is preoccupied by what dresses to take with her and she forgets to take her baby; Michael, with her when she eventually flees.

Baby Michael is found by Grusha, a servant of the Governor's house. She has recently got engaged to a soldier, Simon Chachava, who has to leave for the front. She sees the Governor's head in the town square and realises the danger that Michael faces. She decides to take the baby with her as she and the other servants flee.

Grusha struggles to make ends meet as she attempts to look after both herself and the child. After a while she decides that it is simply too much to bear and tries to leave the child with a couple at a farmhouse. However she goes back for him after an encounter with some pursuing soldiers. The soldiers find her back at the farmhouse and in a panic, the farmer's wife betrays her and Michael. The Corporal is shown to be aggressively lascivious, but Grusha manages to hit him over the head with a piece of wood and makes her escape with the baby. She resolves to go to her brother's farm in the mountains but discovers that her only route to safety is a rickety old bridge that can barely carry her and the baby's weight. She carefully picks her way across knowing that the soldiers, who are much heavier than she is, would never make it across.

Upon finding her brother, Grusha is persuaded to marry a soldier on his deathbed which will make her a widow and therefore will provide some degree of protection for her and the baby. It turns out however, that the soldier she has married was not as ill as everyone had thought yet she remains his wife for the sake of Michael.

Two years pass and Grusha has continued to look after Michael, raising him as her own child. The war has finally ended and Simon Chachava returns to find her married and bringing up the Governor's baby but he understands the situation. The war now over, Michael's biological mother returns and launches proceedings to reclaim him. It is here that Azdak is introduced, a village clerk who becomes a judge since the previous establishment has been overthrown. He listens to the claims of both Grusha (who he is openly suspicious of) and the Governor's wife who is represented by an expensive lawyer.

Azdak is unable to decide the parentage, so he announces that the only way to decide who should claim the child is to draw a chalk circle on the ground and place the child in the centre. Each potential mother should then attempt to pull the child out and whoever does so, 'wins' the child. At first, Natella pulls the child out but Grusha protests and Azdak agrees to let her try again. This time however, she breaks down and says that she cannot tear the child apart like this. This proves to be the answer that Azdak was looking for and he grants custody of the child to Grusha. He also dissolves her marriage to the dead soldier 'by mistake', thereby freeing her to marry Simon. Azdak also declares that the deceased Governor's estate should go to the City and fund a playground for the children. Afterwards, Grusha says to Simon that since Michael was born as she and Simon became engaged, he was a child of love after all.

This concludes the play and an epilogue is read to the conflicted communities which relates the play to their situation. It is stated that the 'prize', in this case the farmland, should go to the people who would best look after it.