"The Good person of Szechwan" by Bertolt Brecht

Comprising ten scenes and interludes but not divided into acts, this play is in Brecht's typical style. He wanted to use theatre to stimulate social change so his plays attempt to jolt audiences out of any empathy with the characters towards a more rational analysis of what is going on. To do this he breaks up the action with songs and by having the actors address the audience directly from time to time. In this play he also ends leaving several loose ends and a 'player' adds an epilogue which asks the audience to consider several questions including:

Should the world be changed

Or just the gods?

Three gods visit the province of Szechwan in their quest to find a good person. Wang the (cheating) water-seller does his best to find them lodgings. The only person who will give them a room is Shen Teh, a prostitute. The gods reward her with enough money to but a small tobacco shop. But as soon as she does, poor people emerge to beg from her, blaming her for their misfortune. She falls in love with a wannabe pilot who only tries to sponge off her; even Wang tries to persuade her to perjure herself so he can sue the barber for hurting his hand. She has to call on the services of her cousin Shui Ta who is a much more ruthless businessman to get the bloodsuckers off her back. It is soon revealed that Shui Ta is actually Shen Teh in disguise. This is made explicit at the half way point when, in an interlude in front of the curtain, Shen Teh appears carrying Shui Ta's mask and clothes to sing the "Song of the Defenceless of the Good and the Gods":

Why can't the gods launch a great operation

With bombers and battleships, tanks and destroyers

And rescue the good by a ruthless invasion?

Then maybe the wicked would cease to annoy us.

In some ways this is exactly what Shui Ta is doing. The question then becomes; can Shen Teh still be a good person if she is refusing charity and forcing other people to work for her, sometimes in less than ideal working conditions (this is also a good question in Les Miserables when Jean Valjean is making his fortune as the proprietor of the factory in which Cosette is employed; he might be a good employer compared to the others but he is still profiting from the labour of others).

I like to get emotionally involved with Drama so I find Brecht challenging. But there is no doubt that he poses some serious moral problems in this play. Is it possible to be a good person in this world? And why tobacco?

I saw this play in November 2013 performed by Bedford Modern School's Theatre in Transit featuring Georgina Brand as a god.

May 2016; 109 pages

Glengarry Glen Ross" by David Mamet

This is a very modern play about real estate salesmen.

The first act is made up of three scenes, each a two hander in the same restaurant.

In the first scene Levene, a salesman, is begging Williamson for leads. There is a sales contest, the top salesman will be given a Cadillac, the next a set of steak knives and the bottom two will be sacked. Williamson distributes the leads and the quality of the lead makes all the difference between sale and no-sale. Levene, presently well in the relegation zone, offers to bribe Williamson for better leads and Williamson seems to accept but holds out for more money than Levene can lay his hands on.

In the second scene Moss, who is in the safety zone, is trying to persuade Aaronow to burgle the office and steal the leads. They can sell the leads to a rival salesman who has set up on his own. Moss has his alibi all prepared and Aaronow quite rightly asks why he should be the one to do the burglary. Moss tells him that he is already an accessory before the fact and he is therefore guilty just by listening.

In the third scene Roma, the top salesman, is entertaining Lingk, a client. They make small talk and the scene ends just as Roma prepares to sell.

Act Two is set the next morning in the office, which has been burgled. Detective Baylen is interviewing the salesmen one by one. Roma is demanding his Cadillac straight away because he has sold to Lingk and is now uncatchable in the contest. Aaronow is confessing that he is unable to sell anymore, that he is washed up. Then Levene shows up saying that he sold eight units; he describes how he closed the deal simply by waiting in silence with the pen poised until the clients took the pen and signed. Then Lingk shows up asking for his money back; his wife has told him he has three days to back out of the deal. But this will put Roma behind Levene in the contest so Roma starts to lie to Lingk. Finally the burglar is unmasked.

This is a very short little play but quite powerful. The first Act is all about selling: Levene selling the idea to Williamson that he is worth better leads, Moss selling the burglary to Aaronow, Roman selling real estate to Lingk. The language is robust, male, bull talk. What comes over is the incredible pressure these men are under and how they react to that pressure: bribery, burglary, and lies. This is reinforced in the second act as we see Roma one moment bragging about his triumph and in the next trying to lie his way out of losing the Lingk scale; Aaronow confessing his failure and Levene excited about his triumph.

These are men caught in the iron grip of naked capitalism, fighting for survival. Morality has been left far behind.

A raw, brutal play with forthright language. It seemed a bit like watching gladiators fighting to the death with no holds barred.

April 2016; 64 pages