The Caucasian Chalk Circle

Brecht projects an ancient Chinese story onto a realistic setting in Soviet Georgia. In a theme that echoes the Judgment of Solomon, two women argue over the possession of a child. Thanks to the unruly judge, Azdak (one of Brecht's most vivid creations) natural justice is done and the peasant Grusha keeps the child she loves, even though she is not its mother.
Written while Brecht was in exile in the United States during the Second World War, The Caucasian Chalk Circle is a politically charged, much-revived and complex example of Brecht's epic theatre.
This new Student Edition contains introductory commentary and notes by Kristopher Imbrigotta from the University of Puget Sound, US, offering a much-needed contemporary perspective on the play.
The introduction covers:
- narrative structure: play about a play within a play ("circle")
- songs and music
- justice and social systems
- context: Brecht, exile, WWII, socialism
- notions of collective and class
- fable and story adaptation, folk fairy tale

Bertolt Brecht (1898-1956) is acknowledged as one of the great dramatists whose work has had a considerable influence on the theatre. His landmark plays include Mother Courage and Her Children, The Threepenny Opera, The Life of Galileo and The Caucasian Chalk Circle. His plays and dramatic theory are central to the study of modern theatre.
Kristopher Imbrigotta is Assistant Professor of German Studies at the University of Puget Sound (Tacoma, USA). His research and teaching cover literature and cultural studies from the late nineteenth and twentieth centuries, focusing primarily on theater history and drama pedagogy; visual culture and film; memory discourses and literary historiography; and environmental humanities. He is co-editor of the performance journal Communications of the International Brecht Society and an elected member of the steering committee for the Brecht Society. He is also a member of the international translation team for the latest edition of Brecht on Theater (2014).