The Struggle for the Valley
In our conversation in the podcast we talked about the fact that the first scene was not always part of the play; that it may have been added at a later date. It does feel somewhat tacked on in order to introduce and underline some of Brecht’s thematic or political points. It is certainly steeped in socialist thinking of the time. The State is responsible for creating the peasants’ collective farms, or kolchos, as well as for investment in the land. The Expert from the State argues, for example, that land is not private property but a national asset which should be managed for the benefit of all.

The scene also features representatives of ordinary Soviet society: peasants, soldiers, an Agronomist, even a character called The Girl Tractor Driver. From our vantage point today it reads almost like a parody of Soviet propaganda. The political allegory had real power at the time, however, because in 1955 the West German premiere of the play omitted the prologue as “politically inopportune”. It constituted an enemy missive in the Cold War.

Zoe West as The Singer
Rose Theatre Kingston 2022
Photo: Iona Farouzabadi

The language in the play
One of the other ways that the play does not pretend to be a mirror of reality is that Brecht employs a heightened poetic language. This is most obviously true in the song lyrics, which include fundamental features of verse such as rhythm, rhyme and repetition. I was fascinated to discover that in one of the original English translations of the play, the song lyrics were written by none other than W.H. Auden. The text of the play that includes Auden’s lyrics was translated by James Stern and his German wife Tania. Like Brecht, Tania had fled Nazi Germany in 1933, and Auden met the Sterns in the late 1930s in Paris. Also like Brecht, the Sterns and Auden moved to the United States during the war, where they collaborated on their version of The Caucasian Chalk Circle. Knowing this I fancy that one can hear his poetic voice in the play’s poetic song lyrics.

The language of the lyrics and of the speech in general is certainly one of the pleasures of the play. The Singer’s opening line is the age-old beginning of a fairy tale, “Once upon a time”, which he rhythmically repeats at the end of each verse. Grusha’s vow to wait for Simon to return from the “bloody battle, the bitter battle” – a description that is also repeated throughout the play – is given emotional weight by the poetry with which she expresses it. The Singer’s account of Azdak’s eccentric judgements in favour of the people concisely captures Brecht’s parody of justice:
“Beware of willing Judges
For Truth is a black cat
In a windowless room at midnight
And Justice a blind bat.
A third and shrugging party
Alone can right our wrong.
This, this, this, Azdak
Does for a mere song.”
(It sounds like pure Auden doesn’t it?).

Brecht also relishes the playfulness of Simon’s riddling, especially in the nonsensical battle of wit between he and Azdak at the court:
Simon (loudly): ‘When the horse was shod, the horsefly stretched out its leg”.
Azdak: (eagerly accepting the challenge): ‘Better a treasure in the sewer than a stone in the mountain stream.”
Simon: ‘”A fine day. Let’s go fishing,” said the angler to the worm.’
Azdak: ‘”I’m my own master,” said the servant, and cut off his foot.’
Simon: ‘”I love you like a father,” said the Czar to the peasant, and had the Czarevitch’s head chopped off.’
Azdak: ‘The fool’s worst enemy is himself.’
Simon: But ‘a fart has no nose.’
Azdak: Fined ten piastres for indecent language in Court.

In fact now that I hear them again, perhaps there is some sense in their words after all.