Epic Theatre Techniques in Bertolt Brecht's 'Caucasian Chalk Circle'

This essay delves into Bertolt Brecht's play, "The Caucasian Chalk Circle," examining his application of Epic Theatre principles to convey social and political commentary. It explores how Brecht employed various theatrical conventions, such as narration, disjointed time sequences, and musical dialogues, to create dramatic language that critiques societal injustices, class warfare, and the misuse of power. The essay highlights how the play's themes of justice, motherhood, and political corruption are interwoven, and how Brecht's techniques aimed to engage the audience and provoke critical thought. By analyzing the play's structure, dramatic elements, and historical context, the essay demonstrates how Brecht used Epic Theatre to effectively highlight the realities of the 20th century and question the deprivation of basic rights within societal frameworks. The essay also references the play's themes and the playwright's intentions.

Running head: EPIC THEATRE AND BERTOLT BRECHT
EPIC THEATRE AND BERTOLT BRECHT
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1EPIC THEATRE AND BERTOLT BRECHT
As opined by Wilson (2017), the epic theatre was a popular theatre movement of the
20th century which intended to the political climate of the age through the creation of the kind
of plays wherein the audience rather than suspending their disbelief would be forced to see
the world as it. O'Brien and Sutton (2018) are of the viewpoint that the resultant effect of this
was that the playwrights tried to take the help of different kinds of theatrical conventions or
measures which rather than emphasising on the idea of verisimilitude would focus on
offering a glimpse of the world or the political condition of the time with utmost reality. In
this regard, mention needs to be made of the playwright Brecht whose majority of the plays
are redolent with the concept of ‘epic theatre’ and as a matter of fact that the effective usage
of the same concept in almost all his plays contributed in a significant manner towards the
popularisation of the same (He, 2018). Brecht’s “The Caucasian Chalk Circle” through the
effective usage of the concept of epic theatre tries to highlight the social as well as political
condition of the 20th century. This essay will explore the manner in which Brecht uses the
concept of epic theatre to create effective dramatic language that in turn enabled him to
highlight the social and political condition of the age in a much better manner.
Bertolt Brecht’s “The Caucasian Chalk Circle” (1944) or called by the name of “Der
kaukasische Kreidekreis” in German is one of the most popular plays of Brecht which had
been numerous times over the years because of the dramatic merits of the concerned play
(Riaz, Sarfraz & Khan, 2015). Furthermore, the concerned play of Brecht is one of the best-
known examples of modern “play within a play” and it is seen that the actual action of the
play takes place within the subset of the play which is being created by Brecht (Herujiyanto,
2016). As a matter of fact, it is seen that the play under discussion here revolves around the
dramatic action of the manner in which a child, Michael is being raised by a pleasant. In this
regard, it needs to be said that the primary concern of the actual mother of the child is to use
the child so as gain access to the wealth of her husband. On the other hand, it is seen that the

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maid Grusha loves the child with the devotion of a true mother which becomes apparent from
the fact that during the chalk test she cannot bring herself to hurt the child. This play of
Brecht is a rewriting of his famous short story “Der Augsburger Kreidekreis” which in turn
was inspired from “The Chalk Circle”, a 14th century Chinese play by Li Xingdao (He, 2018).
More importantly, it is seen that one of the most important aspects of the play under
discussion here and which as a matter of fact enhances the dramatic appeal of the concerned
play is the effectiveness with which he uses the concept of ‘epic theatre’ for highlighting the
action of the play.
Riaz, Sarfraz and Khan (2015) are of the viewpoint that one of the major themes of
the play “The Caucasian Chalk Circle” is justice and it is around this theme that all the major
action of the concerned play revolves around. As a matter of fact, it is seen that the
playwright Brecht artfully links different other themes of the concerned play like class
warfare, misappropriation of power, motherhood, religious hypocrisy and others with the
central theme of justice to link the two plays which make up the entire drama under
discussion here (Wilson, 2017). In this regard, it needs to be said that the injustice that
Grusha had to face at the hands of the society because of the fact that she belongs to the
lower strata of the society, the deprivation of care that Michael had to suffer because of the
excessive greed of his natural or biological mother, the misappropriation of power by Arsen
Kazbeki, Azdak and others for the attainment of their own selfish ends all point out that the
concept of justice is the pivotal theme of the concerned play (He, 2018). The lines of the play
“Those who have no share in the fortunes of the mighty/ Often have a share in their
misfortunes…….it into the abyss” in a succinct manner point towards this (Brecht, 2015).
More importantly, it is seen that the theme of justice rather than just being depicted within the
political arena encompasses the political arena as well. Thus, it can be said that Brecht in the
play raises questions about the manner in which the individuals within the societal framework

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are being deprived of their basic right of justice. On the other hand, the message which
Brecht tries to convey through the play is the fact that justice is one of the most basic rights
of the individuals and if they are being deprived of this basic right then this might lead to
creation of the kind of society wherein chaos would be the order of the day and the
individuals would be deprived of most basic rights or needs.
O'Brien and Sutton (2018) are of the viewpoint that Brecht uses the different
conventions of the epic theatre to enhance the dramatic appeal of the play under discussion
here and also for the purpose of making the audiences understand the message that he is
trying to convey to them. As a matter of fact, it is seen that one of the most important
conventions that he uses is the tool of narration and the resultant effect of this is that the
majority of the action of the play is in the form of narration (Herujiyanto, 2016).
Furthermore, the narrators purposefully spoil the dramatic tension which gets created by
informing the audiences beforehand about what is actually going to happen in the subsequent
scenes. Another important epic theatre convention which is being used by Brecht is the use of
disjointed time sequence for the narration of the incidents in the play. These in turn had
enabled the playwright to effectively shape the dramatic meaning of the play and also to drive
home the central message of the play in an adequate manner.
One of the most important dramatic elements which engaged the audiences and
thereby helped the playwright to effectively communicate the dramatic message was the
effective utilisation of the central theme of justice (Wilson, 2017). As a matter of fact, in the
20th century especially during the time when the play was written because of the War and
other social factors the people were deprived of their basic justice right and this in turn helped
them to effectively correlate with the central message of the play (He, 2018). Another
important dramatic element which was used by Brecht was the musical dialogues between the
narrators and also the major characters of the play (O'Brien & Sutton, 2018). Furthermore,

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the actors in the Brisbane Arts Theatre for the staging of the concerned play displayed
effective acting skills and it was seen rather than dressing up as the members of the royal
family or peasants, the actors dressed in their everyday attire to convince the audience that it
was merely a play. This can be ascribed to the fact that the primary intention of the play was
not to focus on the concept of verisimilitude but to drive home the central message of the
play and thereby to make the audiences understand it.
To conclude, Brecht’s “The Caucasian Chalk Circle” is an important play because of
the effectiveness with it uses the conventions of the epic theatre. More importantly, it had
been seen that the concerned play rather than focusing on the concept of verisimilitude
focuses more on its central message and this in turn had enabled the playwright to convey the
central message or the dramatic action of the concerned play in a much better manner.

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References
Brecht, B. (2015). The Caucasian chalk circle. Bloomsbury Publishing.
He, W. (2018). Bertolt Brecht’s theatrical concept of alienation effect and the Chinese
application and transformation. Neohelicon, 1-15.
Herujiyanto, A. (2016). Critical Writing: Bertold Brecht’s The Caucasian Chalk Circle (Der
Kaukasische Kreidekreis, 1944). Journal of Language and Literature, 16(1), 36-44.
O'Brien, N., & Sutton, A. (2018). Brecht. In Theatre in Practice(pp. 64-98). Routledge.
Riaz, S., Sarfraz, R., & Khan, F. E. Y. (2015). Comparison between Shaw’s and Brecht’s
Treatment of Political Consciousness. Strength for Today and Bright Hope for
Tomorrow Volume 15: 6 June 2015 ISSN 1930-2940, 139.
Wilson, D. D. (2017). A Study on the Theatrical Techniques Employed in Brecht's
Plays. IUP Journal of English Studies, 12(4), 60-67.