Arts Brief: Get ready for ‘The Good Woman of Setzuan’

This weekend the Middlebury community will be treated to a performance that seeks to capture audiences through intellectual engagement.

With a cast of over 21 students, The Good Woman of Setzuan stars Michaela Lieberman ’10.5, Christo Grabowski ’10 and Michael Kessler ’11.

When three gods descend to Earth in search of a good person they find what they are looking for in Shen Te, a prostitute. After offering the gods a place to stay for the night when no one else would, they reward her with a small fortune that she uses to buy a tobacco shop.

This parable, written by the German director Bertolt Brecht follows Shen Te as she tries to preserve her goodness in a world that forces people to remain bad out of sheer necessity. In order to protect herself and balance the survival of a town struggling in economic destitution, Shen Te creates a male cousin, Shui Ta, who as a cunning business man allows her to exact authority over her life and those around her.

The play is an interesting take on how environment corrupts the individual as it examines how poverty forces people to resort to whatever means necessary to survive.

However, what will intrigue audiences the most is how the work compels them toward self-scrutiny as it implements the classic theory and techniques of Brechtian theater. Set in the fictional province of Setzuan, the play immediately distances itself from its intended audience by dividing the setting of the work from the point of view of those watching. The theatricality of the play is always present to indicate to audiences from the start that what they are observing is not reality, but its imitation.

“What Brecht tries to do with music is to thwart any emotional connection the audience may feel towards a character,” explained Lieberman.

“Songs provide a sense of exposition and it is a weird, jarring occurrence in the middle of a fluid scene.”

Brecht seeks to thwart the style of traditional theatre by working against the notion of catharsis, of a cleansing and release for the audience upon seeing a work. He wants to undermine any connection the audience may have with the characters to stymie an emotional response and force you to engage intellectually.

“There is a more active engagement with the text, a more active engagement with the themes and a more active self examination,” said Lieberman.

“So you actually see those circumstances that he writes about and then go out, recognize them in your own world and then hopefully change them.”

Audiences should expect a precise performance that is forthright with its intention and exact in its staging. The characters say exactly what they mean and relationships rely on visible, spatial dynamics. In this way director Cheryl Faraone acts as a sort of fusion between director and choreographer.

“Approaching Brecht is, of course, a daunting proposition, primarily because of the amount of theory covering every aspect of his productions,” commented Faraone.

“But in the end, the play asserts itself, and the pure theatre of it becomes our laboratory. “

In a production that uses no stage make-up, simple costumes and exposes stage directions, the purity of the work is sure to jolt audiences in an unfamiliar yet refreshing way.

“It’s only now, as we come to end of the process, that I fully understand the muscularity of it,” said Faraone,

“the rough and tumble energy which asks so much from the company, but provides an equal amount in return.”

The Good Women of Setzuan premiers on Thursday, April 29.