Masterfully inventive direction and a marvelously multi-talented cast work theatrical alchemy on Bertolt Brecht’s The Caucasian Chalk Circle, the latest Antaeus Theatre Company triumph.

A less adventurous playwright than the early-20th-century groundbreaker might have taken a more straightforward approach and told his story something like this. (Those wishing to avoid spoilers may choose to skip the next four paragraphs.)

Following a local coup d’état, beheaded governor Georgi Abashwili’s (Paul Baird) widow Natella (Claudia Elmore) flees for her life leaving behind the infant child she was too preoccupied with packing to remember to bring along.

Meanwhile elsewhere in the house, kitchen maid Grusha (Liza Seneca) discovers said heir-to-the-throne and takes it upon herself to save baby Michael from certain death.

Multiple adventures ensue before Grusha and Michael arrive at her brother Lavrenti’s (Alex Knox) farm, upon which Lavrenti and his wife Aniko (Elmore) persuade Grusha to marry the seemingly deathbed-bound Jussup (Troy Guthrie).

Complications quickly reach their peak when Grusha’s betrothed Simon (Michael Khachanov) returns from the war as does Michael’s mother, who insists that local judge Azdak (Steve Hoffendahl) return the now two-year-old toddler to his birth mom, Grusha’s love for him be damned.

Leave it to Bertolt Brecht to put his own distinctive brand of political (aka didactic, aka epic) theater on all of the above.

That’s not to say that The Caucasian Chalk Circle as Brecht wrote it will be everybody’s cup of tea, even if the German playwright does earn points for daring to upset the then order of things by having his characters perform on a non-realistic set, break the fourth wall, crack jokes, and even sing chunks of dialog, all the while us letting us know that they know they’re performing a play.

Add to that the fact that unless you happen to be a fluent German speaker watching Der kaukasische Kreidekreis in Brecht’s native tongue, you’ll be hearing an English-language translation that can’t help sounding somewhat stilted no matter who’s doing the translating (in this case it’s Alistair Beaton), and unless you feel that Bertolt Brecht can do no wrong, you’d better make darned sure that the production you’re seeing will be the opposite of by-the-numbers or you’ll be scratching your head and wondering what all the fuss is about.

Fortunately, Stephanie Shroyer proves precisely the director to make the potentially unworkable work, including the play’s borderline extraneous Prologue, a scene that didn’t even make it into a U.S. production till seventeen years after The Caucasian Chalk Circle debuted. (I’ll leave it to you to discover how Shroyer and her cast make the audience an integral part of the action.)

Once events get going in the play-within-a-play being put on by the Prologue’s squabbling farmers, a couple of things become crystal clear.

First of all, that not only will Shroyer’s cast sing, principally Gabriela Bonet’s rich-voiced narrator Arkadi Tcheidse, many will be accompanying themselves and their castmates on assorted musical instruments, most notably Baird on accordion, to melodies they themselves composed during rehearsals.

Secondly, that no matter how dry The Caucasian Chalk Circle might read on paper (or how deadly dull it might play in the wrong hands), Shroyer has staged it with so much exuberance and filled it with so much screwball comedy that even the overlong flashback sequence that recounts just how and why a rascal like Azdak managed to go from clerk to judge sparkles.

Another of Shroyer’s inspired touches is having her cast not only rearrange scenic designer Frederica Nascimento’s ingenious set themselves in epic theater tradition, they even go so far as to become part of the design, most remarkably by lying down in two parallel lines to form an undulating rivulet while providing their own Foley effects.

And just wait till you see how cast member Bonnet animates the Cabbage Patchlike doll that sits in for Michael with such adorable charm, you’d swear the toddler were alive, making the play’s climactic Grusha’s Choice sequence all the more heart-rending.

There’s not a weak link in USC drama professor Shroyer’s stellar ensemble (half of whom are Trojan grads), completed quite splendidly by John Apicella, Noel Arthur, Turner Frankosky, Connor Kelly-Eiding, Mehrnaz Mohammadi, Madalina Nastase, Janellen Steininger, and George Villas.

Seneca’s radiant, big-hearted Grusha and Hofvendahl’s rapscallion delight of an Azdak may be the evening’s most memorable creations, but Arthur’s vibrant “Fat Prince” and Elmore’s self-absorbed Natella prove particularly delicious and Guthrie’s Jussup and Khachanov’s Simon are both so leading-man appealing that only Jussup’s obnoxious nature makes it easy for Grusha to resist him for the steadfast Simon.

Angela Balogh Calin’s fast-morphing period costumes, Erin Walley’s multitudinous props, Ken Booth’s evocative lighting, and Jeff Gardner’s expert sound design each deserve their own plaudits in yet another Grade-A Antaeus production design.

Emily Hawkins is assistant director. Ryan McRee is dramaturg.

Taylor Anne Cullen is production stage manager and Jessica Osorio is assistant stage manager. Adam Meyer is production manager and technical director.

While it may not make complete converts of those for whom Brecht rhymes with blech, the Antaeus Theatre Company’s season closer comes pretty darned close. It’s as exhilarating a theatrical experience as you’ll enjoy all summer long.

Kiki & David Gindler Performing Arts Center, 110 East Broadway, Glendale.
www.Antaeus.org

–Steven Stanley
July 29, 2019
Photos: Jenny Graham

Tags: Bertolt Brecht, Los Angeles Theater Review, The Antaeus Company