‘Caucasian Chalk Circle’ is epic theater at SCR

In his day, one of the most notable proponents of epic theater was

Bertolt Brecht, the German playwright who fled the Nazi regime and

produced much of his populist-political work in this country.

Among these extravaganzas -- which often bordered on the

nonsensical in their attempts to drive home the playwright’s strident

viewpoint -- was “The Caucasian Chalk Circle,” which South Coast

Repertory has chosen as its season opener. Sprawling and often

incomprehensible, it may not appeal to all playgoers, yet its

thematic thrust is vibrant and violently effective.

Director Kate Whoriskey has turned the Segerstrom Stage into a

revolutionary battleground, in which the soldiers are armed with

hockey sticks and justice is served with astonishingly bizarre logic.

This heavy-handed approach may dull the senses, but the effect is

mesmerizing.

Brecht’s epic, based on an ancient Chinese play, is set in a

fictional eastern European country of indeterminate chronology,

opening at the outset of a coup that tears the ruling family apart --

killing the governor, scattering his materialistic wife and her

servants and leaving her infant son in the care of a palace maid.

Reluctant at first, the maid, Grusha, flees with the child and

eventually bonds with something exceeding maternal zeal. Finally

captured and brought to trial, where she must face the birth mother,

she finds her fate in the somewhat shaky hands of a boozing,

bribe-taking judge whose legal expertise is just to the left of

“whatever.”

As the heroic Grusha, the diminutive Katrina Lenk endures a

firestorm of misfortune before finally using her day in court to

deliver a most stinging rebuke of the system under which she exists

in a superior performance.

Frank Wood, playing the unconventional jurist, doesn’t appear

until the second act, but commands the stage from that point on.

Plucked virtually from the gutter to replace a judge hanged by the

revolutionaries, Wood clearly revels in his assignment, all too aware

his character’s own head is not far from the noose.

The play is narrated, lyrically, by Daniel Breaker as a

minstrel-like character who fills in for the child in the key

second-act scene from which the play derives its title. Nina Hellman,

a late replacement in the role of the governor’s screeching widow,

renders an especially strong performance.

William Seymour as the corporal of the steel-booted militia is a

frighteningly powerful figure, representing Brecht’s hated

totalitarian mentality. Other notable performances, in various

assignments, are delivered by Richard Doyle, Hal Landon Jr., Martha

McFarland, Matt D’Amico and Alex Mendoza, the latter as Grusha’s

platonic love interest.

The imposing scenic design, created by Walt Spangler, uses a

series of aluminum-like backdrops, including a church, which is

decimated on stage. Ilona Somogyi’s costumes reflect the grim,

repressive society the play portrays.

“The Caucasian Chalk Circle” is a powerful production, not always

accessible but ultimately satisfying, and it gets the latest South

Coast Repertory season off to a rousing start.

IF YOU GO

* WHAT: “The Caucasian Chalk Circle”

* WHERE: South Coast Repertory Segerstrom Theater, 655 Town Center

Drive,

Costa Mesa

* WHEN: Sundays and Tuesdays at 7:30 p.m., Wednesdays through

Saturdays at

8 p.m. with matinees Saturdays and Sundays at 2:30 p.m. until Oct.

9.

* COST: $20 -$58

* CALL: (714) 708-5555