Is it possible to be too good?
DalTheatre鈥檚 latest production, The Good Soul of Szechuan, hopes to answer this question through comedy, drama and music.
The play was written by Bertolt Brecht, in collaboration with Margarete Steffin and Ruth Berlau, over a period of five years and completed in 1943. It was first performed that same year at the Z眉rich Schauspielhaus in Switzerland. Now, DalTheatre鈥檚 production is already a sell-out hit.
The three Gods played by聽(from left to right) Katerina Bakolias, Linden Campbell, and Sinclair Gwilliams.
The story follows Shen Teh, a prostitute, whom three visiting gods deem to be a good person. As a reward for her goodness, they leave her with some money and she opens a tobacco shop. She is soon taken advantage of and creates a persona, whom she calls her cousin, that is the opposite 鈥� a 鈥渟hrewd bushinessman who can say no,鈥� explains director Ann Marie Kerr.
鈥淏recht hoped the audience would bring their critical minds,鈥� she continues. 鈥淗e didn鈥檛 want the audience entrained to a point where they didn鈥檛 think or care about the content of the show. So what he鈥檚 done is written it as kind of a fairy tale, a parable, where have some distance from it, you know that you鈥檙e looking at something that is kind of far away from you.鈥�
As the director, Kerr explains that it鈥檚 important to keep the heart and soul of the characters intact, but at the same time encourage the student actors to bring what she calls their 鈥減issed-off-ness about the world, as well as their big hearts and big minds and souls to this.鈥�
Shui Ta (Marina Gwynne) confronts the Husband (Henri Gielis).
Despite Brecht鈥檚 reputation as a serious playwright, the play itself is quite humourous. Chalk full of stock characters 鈥� husbands, wives, pilots, good people, children, barbers and more 鈥� the play is, as Ms. Kerr puts it, 鈥渜uite simple. If people are feeling antsy about sitting through a Brecht play, then I think the ride is going to be a lot more fun than they are expecting.鈥�
DalTheatre鈥檚 production of The Good Soul of Szechuan runs through February 8 at the AV俱乐部 Arts Centre鈥檚 David MacK Murray Theatre. All shows are currently sold out; more information can be found at the AV俱乐部 Arts Centre website.