This year’s Senior Play was Bertolt Brecht’s ‘The Caucasian Chalk Circle’, performed by Years 10-13 in a bold new adaption by Steve Waters and directed by Mr Dawes.
Bertolt Brecht wrote The Caucasian Chalk Circle in the aftermath of the Second World War, while living in exile and reflecting on the devastation left behind. Having witnessed how easily nationalism and sentimentality could be manipulated by the Nazis, Brecht became deeply wary of theatre that asked audiences simply to feel. He warned against spectators “hanging up their brains with their hats in the theatre cloakroom,” arguing instead for a theatre that encouraged active thinking and judgement. This ambition shaped what he called epic theatre: a form that disrupts illusion, exposes its own mechanics through visible stagecraft, and invites audiences to question what they see. Beneath its humour and folk-tale simplicity, The Caucasian Chalk Circle asks a searching question: in a broken world, who deserves care, land and protection, and who gets to decide?
Steve Waters’ adaptation relocates Brecht’s parable to a present-day refugee camp, placing these questions firmly in the context of contemporary displacement and asylum. By framing the play here, Waters reminds us that Brecht’s concerns are not historical, but urgently current. This was a powerful production, with the students embracing Brecht’s theatrical tools – multi-roling, song and playful interruption – with aplomb.
Please view the photo gallery below.
