El círculo de tiza caucasiano

Brenda Escobedo's version of Bertolt Brecht's play, directed by Beatriz Argüello at the Teatro de La Abadía: a contemporary and epic production on justice and motherhood.

Beatriz Argüello directs at the Teatro de La Abadía a version by Brenda Escobedo of The Caucasian Chalk Circle, one of Bertolt Brecht's most celebrated plays. The production, framed within contemporary theatre, reclaims Brechtian epic theatre through a large-scale staging and a choral cast in which Abadía 44 takes part with its first graduating class.

The plot, marked by the political upheavals of the twentieth century, pits two communities that aspire to the same valley against each other: one left when fleeing the German occupation, while the other worked the land during those years of absence. To set the conflict in motion, Brecht builds a parable around two women who fight to be recognised as the mother of a child: the biological mother, who lost him in the midst of the revolution, and the woman who took him in and raised him during the war.

The production constantly exposes the reverse side of each situation, so that the audience questions what it sees and adopts a critical outlook. The play addresses justice, motherhood, social inequalities and revolutions, and its relevance stems from the topicality of the conflicts it raises. Argüello returns to La Abadía after directing Viejos tiempos, by Harold Pinter, there.