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An Essay on Bertolt Brecht's play, The Caucasian Chalk Circle
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 23 November 2021
Conceptions of Bertolt Brecht's own staging of his play The Caucasian Chalk Circle in the “Berliner Ensemble am Schiffbauerdamm” (premiere on 7 October 1954) differ from the performance in Frankfort-on-the-Main (directed by Harry Buckwitz, premiere on 27 April 1955) in this respect, among others, that in Berlin the Prologue was performed, whereas in Frankfort it was deleted before rehearsals began.
The Prologue is an integral part of The Caucasian Chalk Circle and the play has never been published without it. In it Brecht shows how two Grusinian Kolchoses settle an argument over the possession of a valley claimed by both villages. The valley is obtained by those who give promise of administering it best, i.e., those who will irrigate it in order to make it produce more fruit.
The goat-raising Kolchos “Galinsk” had been evacuated from the valley by a government order when Hitler's armies were advancing.
1 This is attested by the special “Bertolt Brecht Number” of the magazine Sinn und Form (1949) and No. 13 of the “Versuche,” Suhrkamp-Verlag, Berlin and Frankfurt a Main, and Aufbau-Verlag, Berlin, first printing 1954.
2 Sozialistische Einheitspartei Deutschlands.
3 Literally, “for the use of the Dauphin,” innocuous matter, about equivalent to “pap.“
4 Deutsche Demokratische Republik, i.e., East Germany.
3 Freie Deutsche Jugend.
6 Dobroliubov, N. A., “Realm of Darkness,” in Selected Philosophic Essays. Foreign Language Publishing House. Moscow, 1956. pp. 231 ffGoogle Scholar.
7 Eisler, Hans, Weigel, Helene, Brecht, Stefan S.Google Scholar.
8 Vorspann literally means “relay” or “fresh horses.” There is no exact English idiomatic equivalent.
9 Translated by Eric and Maja Bentley.
10 In this essay no attention is paid to the fact that in the version of 1949 the names of the two Kolchoses were reversed.