The Caucasian Chalk Circle
Jump into Brecht's puzzle box of social dilemmas with this year’s Toi Whakaari graduation production directed by Christian Penny.
This is an interactive promenade production from our final year students. A raw and exciting example of epic theatre; the nature of justice and an insight into the glories and defects of human nature.
A servant girl sacrifices everything to protect a child abandoned in the heat of civil war. Order restored, she is made to confront the child’s birth mother in a legal contest over who deserves to keep the child. The judge calls on an ancient tradition – the chalk circle – to resolve the dispute. Who wins? Let the child decide.
“Brecht’s play is Shakespearean in its scale and tone. Scene are generated on a bare stage with the merest of indicators and the humanity revealed by the fusion of action and politics.
It moves from one extreme to the other in the blink of an eye. No shift is too daring for him.
Brecht was a passionate advocate for a more just world. I think it is a voice we are getting ready to hear again.
I really believe what Brecht said of his own work. He wanted an audience to “think and feel” not to sit merely on the edge of their seats, “thrilled”; to be witness to the event that theatre makes possible.”
Christian Penny
PLEASE NOTE seating is stools and pillows. You choose your seat and put it where you want depending on what you want.
This show contains full frontal nudity.
Directed by Christian Penny (Head of Directing)
Set Design by Brian King (Design Graduate)
Costume Design by Emma Ransley (Design Student)
Cast - final year acting students
Children from Island Bay School and Kelburn Normal School.
| Where: | Te Whaea: National Dance & Drama Centre, 11 Hutchison Road, Newtown |
| When: | 7pm, Thu 22 - Sat 31 October (no shows 26 & 27 October) Schools' matinee Wed 28 @ 12.30pm |
| Price: | $15 / $10 |
| Bookings: | ONLINE |
