DAN school fall major ‘Caucasian Chalk Circle’ is a witty triumph

‘The Journal’ acknowledges that a staff member was involved in the production covered in this piece but had no role in the editing process, in order to uphold our standards of journalistic integrity.

As the lights dimmed inside the Rotunda Theatre the evening of Nov. 19, the sun began to rise.

Not literally, of course—clever lighting cues lit up the stage in dazzling hues of orange and red, playing off the detailed clouds painted on the theatre’s back wall. The house was packed, and onstage was the DAN School of Drama and Music’s fall major production, Caucasian Chalk Circle. Originally written by German playwright Bertolt Brecht, the production was directed by Greg Wanless with original music by Noah Ullman, ArtSci ’26.

The story follows a young servant girl in the post-WWII Soviet Union, who bravely adopts an abandoned child and fights to keep him safe. Despite high drama, the script is laugh-out-loud funny at times, exploring topics like class conflict, ownership, and how we prove our merit as humans.

The show employs several storytelling techniques, including songs, puppetry, and a clever “play-within-a-play” structure, keeping audiences on their toes through five unique acts. Roles are double-cast, where every act features a different actor for each character.

Wanless’ direction honours Brecht’s alienation effect, a technique of his dramatic theory. Characters switch actors frequently, so audiences don’t become too emotionally invested in any one actor’s performance. This way, they’re free to consider the story’s meaning.

“[Brecht] wanted his audience not to be emotionally involved in the show, but to be intellectually involved. So that at the end of the play, they would get out of their seats, and they’d go do something political,” Wanless said in an interview with The Journal.

To achieve this effect, Wanless also drew on the commedia dell’arte, an Italian tradition where actors use comic techniques and masks to exaggerate characters. “A lot of these [characters] don’t have masks on, but we worked on them as if they were commedia [dell’arte],” Wanless said. He encouraged certain actors to “act big,” filling out outrageous characters like the cruel wife Natella Abashwili or the wisecracking judge Azdak.

Another key part of Caucasian Chalk Circle are the costumes. Some outfits, like Prince Arsen Kazbeki’s fat suit, are so visually striking they veer on cartoonish. “You laugh at them,” Wanless said with a smile.

Creative costumes, intricate set design, and gorgeous lighting plots made meticulous use of the Rotunda Theatre’s black box design. Audience members in the front row sat right on the floor, an arm’s length away from actors who leapt, crawled, and spun through impressive choreography. One of my favourite moments was the energetic “dance break” near the end of Act 4, driven by an outstanding performance by William Mercer, ArtSci ’26, as Azdak.

But while the result looks seamless, DAN School major productions are labours of love. Performers undertake a 12-week course for credit. This year, Wanless introduced nine critical evaluation assignments, where students set goals and reflected on their work in the show.

“They were lovely. I’d never done that before,” Wanless said. “It’s like a journal. I didn’t call it a journal, but it was like a journal.”

The alienation effect drew me into live theatre like never before at Caucasian Chalk Circle. I found myself comparing different actors’ versions of the same character, wondering if their critical evaluations contained more insight into their performances.

Strangely, the show felt uniquely artistic in its design, calling me to contemplate it as a larger parable even as I was immersed in its showmanship. I kept wondering what different stylistic choices were meant to convey, and how the brilliant cast’s interpretation of Brecht’s writing would influence my own.

The cast received an enthusiastic standing ovation at the performance I attended on Nov. 19. As the audience filtered out, I overheard snippets of conversation from various groups about the show’s politics, themes, and various arguments. If Brecht himself had seen this performance, I’m sure he would’ve joined in.