Masterpiece The Caucasian Chalk Circle is among a stage series to be put
on by the Youth Theatre in the latter half of this year.
Composed
by the German modernist playwright Bertolt Brecht, the parable tells a
story of a servant who sacrifices her love for a soldier to rescue a
baby and become a better mother than its wealthy biological parents.
The
play, which will to make its debut on September 16, is a stage
co-production by the Youth Theatre and the Goethe Institute in an effort
to bring more of the world’s stage masterpieces to Vietnamese
audiences.
“Through this collaboration, we would like to
introduce the play to our audiences and profound knowledge of European
stage art to Vietnamese artists,” said the theatre director Truong
Nhuan.
“In particular, we want our artists at the Youth Theatre to be brought up to date with modern stage techniques in Germany.”
The
three-day show will be overseen by German director Dominik Gunther with
the theatre’s veteran actress Le Khanh as deputy-director. Khanh will
be the lead actress in the production.
The Caucasian Chalk Circle
was written in 1944 while Brecht was living in the US. It premiered
worldwide in 1948 and in Germany in 1954. It is considered one of
Brecht’s most celebrated works and is one of the most widely performed
German plays in the world.
It is the second Brecht composition to
be performed by the Youth Theatre. In 1993, it performed The Good
Person of Setzuan and later performed a second interpretation on a tour
to Hue and Ho Chi Minh City in 2009.
A separate experimental piece Ghen Hoan Thu (Hoan Thu Jealousy) will also feature in the series.
The
play is being rehearsed by the theatre’s Youth Experimental Physical
Troupe and is based on the Vietnamese masterpiece Truyen Kieu (Kieu’s
Tales), a masterpiece of Vietnamese classic epic poetry. The
collaboration, between the Youth Theatre and the Vietnam Kieu
Association, will mark the 250th birth anniversary of the tales’ author,
poet Nguyen Du, in 2015.
A third piece, entitled Vong Dia Cau
Be Nho (Little Global Round), will see the theatre and the Institute for
Studies of Society, Economics and Environment (iSEE) collaborate with a
focus on the themes of anti-discrimination and anti-violence.-VNA