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Bertolt BrechtTranslations: W. H. Auden and James and Tania Stern Play - M38 F11 with doubling possible. Various simple settings. Parable play based on the Chinese drama The Circle of Chalk, proclaiming that ownership should be decided by merit, not law. In a prologue, members of two Soviet communes, goat breeders and fruit growers, meet in a war-shattered village to discuss who should have a certain valley, the ownership of which is disputed. The problem is settled in favour of the fruit growers, and to celebrate the decision a storyteller recounts, through song and dance, an old legend, which the fruit growers perform. According to the legend a cruel town governor is murdered. His wife escapes but abandons her baby, who is harboured by a kitchen-maid, Grusha. Later the governor's widow returns and a trial is ordered with the test: which woman can drag the child out of a chalk circle? In refusing to harm the child by pulling it, Grusha is ruled to be the 'true' mother. Period 1945
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