review of fall play

    Caucasian Chalk Circle

   The play named Caucasian Chalk Circle which is directed by German modernist playwright Bertolt Brecht. 

   The play basically combines two stories together that occurs in Caucasian at the end. There is a wealth governer who has been killed by princes, and his wife named Natella leaves behind her son Michael in the chaotic war. At that time, there is a kitchen maid named Grusha save the child and protect him due to her kindness. The soldier who falls in love with her has to engage the war and leave her alone. Her identity leads to others' doubt. As a result, She has no way but marries a "dying" man who has been recommended by her brother. However, soldiers arrive and take Michael away from her and insist that the child is Natella's kid. When Simon comes back and hears that Grusha has married with others. Then, Grusha explains everything for him, and he decides to protect them. Then, the story transfer to Azdak who has been chosen to becomes the next judger. Then, he has been divided into strange cases. One of them is the case of Grusha and the child. After hearing how Grusha take cares of the children. He uses a tricky way to advocates that children belong to Grusha.

   Apparently, it is a great show that everyone did the really good job since their performance attracts me a lot. Different from other serious show that I watched before, performer adds cometic elements not only in the plots but also their way to performance. For example, they use strong body language and comedic voice to make some jokes on the audience. Also, they have more interaction with the audience such as eye contact. Especially, Peter, he has not only sculptures the character in a good way through any small details but also make some eye contacts with the audience. It seems like he communicates with the audience which attracts me a lot. As well as the plots, light can be another highlight through the whole play, when the atmosphere becomes serious, the light goes darker. Moreover, when someone is talking something, the lights follow her/him to make a highlight. Our emotion was changing because of the color of lights changed. At the first scene, all of them were sitting together. Everyone closed their eyes and the lights go to dark blue. It makes me feel peaceful when the background music started. I think narrators can be one of the most attractive parts for me, since before when I design our performance, I have never thought that narrators can stand in the staging and walk with the character. Especially there is a plot which indicates that the governor will be killed. The narrators walk with him and imply the governer's emotion and deep thoughts. It is a more natural way to describe narrators as a character. Differ from ours, it seems like her slow voice is telling us the story instead of connecting the plots. Back to the staging, every time when they have to change the staging, all the lights are turned off, however, I still notice that there is someone who comes out and moved the props due to my distance to the stage. They made no mistakes on transforming the staging, also I think they are organized which means each of them has clear divisions of labor cooperation. Acting as one of the most significant elements which influences the whole play was described by our actors very well. It seems like they are the character themselves. Even though they get some pause when they memorize the scripts, they just ignore them and continue getting their play. Comparing with us, our reaction might laugh and cannot keep going. After I watch their play, I learned a lot about how to act and how to decorate the staging.

        Linda' s character named Natella impressive me a lot. When she comes into the stage, her costume fits her character a lot which seems like a wealthy woman when I saw her for the first time. Then, her acting keeps describing the characteristic of her role. Her loud voice and mean action indicate for the audience that her character is such a mean woman who cares about beauty and wealth a lot. She highlights the main words which can be better sculptures her character. Also, her way to walk and sit also shows us her identity. Her screaming in the last scene can be the most impressive part of her character which best illustrates her outrageous. Sometimes, her character gives me a feeling of rude and impolite who stands in the highest position and arranges anyone around her to do anything. Her body language best convince my feeling. However, comparing with her second character, her outrageous are kinds of different from Natella. Natella is more impolite and unkind. However, the soldier character can be more disgusted with others. So, I think she caught the differences between two characters and did not mislead us to think that they are the same character.
       So, the play attracts me a lot which leads me to imagine how will I act on the stage. In addition, it is the best way to demonstrate me how can I make my play more attractive. I have learned a lot from the narrators and staging scene layout. However, sometimes the actor's low voice will influence the effect of the play, moreover, their English is a little bit hard to understand in some ways. I hope my play can be best understood by the audience.