School Play Review

In preparing to see the Fall play this weekend, here are a few things to think about and look for while you are watching. The playwright Bertolt Brecht did NOT believe that theater should always be realistic or that the audience should be able to relate or feel satisfied by the performance. So this performance will be very different from what you are used to. Read the director's note in the program for more specifics. Also, Brecht is very interested in politics, in examining who has power and status and how people use/abuse power and status. Pay attention to who is a "good person" and who is corrupt or selfish or cruel. What is Brecht saying about about society? Is the ending fair? Is Grusha the real mother and why? Before the show, if you want to read a synopsis on Wikipedia to understand the basic story line and characters, you can do that. Remember to have fun, and be a good audience!

I believe that Brecht was trying to point out the fact that society is very corrupt. In the play, Grusha basically saved the baby from dying because there was violence in the city. She was trying to give the baby to someone but nobody would take the baby so, she decided to raise it herself. She is a "good person" because she was giving up her whole being to raise the child. She was willing to do whatever it took to keep the babay safe, fed and warm. The mother who gave birth is not a good person. She was selfish and was more worried about herself that he was about the baby. In the play, the real mother was trying to pick out what dresses she wanted to keep before she was escaping. Throughout the play, I developed a strong hate for the character because of how selfish she was. Especially in the court trial. I almost thought that the real mother was going to get the baby. 

I feel like Brecht was trying to also show how power is so corrupt. Azdak was a random carver in some town. Somehow, he was given the position of the judge for the city. He was power hungry and wanted to make all sorts of money. He was a corrupt judge but somehow  he made the right descisions in giving the child to Grusha. Azdak was all about making money. In the trials, he was favoring the side that gave him money. Everyone knew that if they had enough money, that they could get whatever they wanted out of Azdak. Somehow Grusha won the case. I understand why Azdak vanished from the city because a lot of people would be mad at him because of how he conducted himself. 

I believe that the ending was fair. However, this ending is not realistic. It was obvious that the child was not Grusha's. In the real world, DNA tests would have been done and the child would have been matched with the mother.