‘Good Woman’ condemns capitalism

“The Good Woman of Setzuan” ran in the Wright Memorial Theatre this past weekend, April 29 toMay 1. Directed by Professor of Theatre and Women’s and Gender Studies Cheryl Faraone and designed by Middlebury theatre department faculty, this piece of epic performance, speckled with dramatically stark musical numbers and sporting a lively and talented ensemble, warned its audience of the pitfalls of capitalist society.

The play begins when a waterseller named Wong (Michael Kessler ’11) encounters three traveling gods in the town of Setzuan, and they ask for a place to stay the night.

As the only person in the village to offer her home to the three, prostitute Shen Te (Michaela Lieberman ’10.5) proves to the deities that there are still good, kind human beings on Earth. The grateful gods (Rebecca Wear ’11, Benjamin Meader ’10.5 and Lilli Stein ’11) leave Shen Te with a small fortune so she can to begin a new life. She quits walking the streets, buys a tobacco shop and immediately giving the street urchins shelter; however, their parasitic ways overwhelm her, and Shen Te is forced to adopt an alter ego, masquerading as a tough and assertive “cousin” Shui Ta.

This alter ego helps Shen Te deal with many new people in her new life, such as her landlord Mrs. Mi Tzu (Ele Woods ’11), the loudmouthed Mrs. Shin (Christine Chung ’10) and the comically abrasive Policeman (Noah Berman ’13).

As she settles into life as a financially-secure woman, Shen Te falls in love with Yang Sun (Christo Grabowski ’12) after preventing him from killing himself. A despairing pilot without a job and an overbearing mother (Cecily Glouchevitch ’12.5), Yang Sun promises to take Shen Te with him to Peking where he will find work.

What happens next is a whirlwind of events that force Shen Te to become a player in the game of capitalism, greed and fortune. In the end, the audience is left wondering if Shen Te is really a “good woman of Setzuan” or not.

The play was based off of German playwright Bertolt Brecht’s “Der gute Mensch von Sezuan,” a 1943 parable that was translated and adapted for American audiences.

Brecht designed the play as an invitation to the audience to critically engage the effects of greed, egotism and capitalism on society. Like the original, “Good Woman” was staged with the methods of epic theater in mind, which means that the audience must know it is watching a play at all times. Indeed, the set workers were often present on stage even when actors were performing, letting the audience know that what they were watching was just an illusion and not reality.

Also, in keeping with the original’s style, the musical numbers were not accompanied by traditional instruments; only a small percussion instrument was used to accompany the singers, and the songs came at startling, unexpected times.

The cast captured Brecht’s style impeccably well, drawing on a minimalistic set design while ensuring that their characters conveyed the message of capitalism’s effect on social class and lifestyle. The variety of costumes, from Mrs. Mi Tzu’s blue satin garment to Shen Te’s ragged maroon clothing, also highlighted the differences between the social classes in Setzuan, furthering the impact of the playwright’s message. The singing, especially Lieberman’s pieces, was oftentimes over-dramatic and heavily enunciated, especially considering the lack of musical accompaniment; yet this style did not seem entirely out-of-place considering the rather surreal and unusual style of the play.

If audience members didn’t appreciate the play’s rather blatant message on capitalism, then they surely enjoyed the play’s self-actualization or at the very least the superb acting of its cast. In the end, these three aspects were what made “The Good Woman of Setzuan” quite a memorable performance.