A theater listening to today's voices

A young theater troupe is at the helm of a new interpretation of an old play. Carly Thomas talk to the team behind the Caucasus chalk circle.

Do not walk in the invented version of The Basement Company Caucasian chalk circle thinking you know what you are going to find.

Expect to be surprised. It is a group of young talents led by an equally young and ambitious director. Although the room is old, the story is not.

Bertolt Brecht wrote the political play in 1944, during the Second World War, while he was in exile in the United States.

He became one of his most famous works. It is a parable about a baby abandoned by a wealthy mother and saved by a peasant woman.

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At the heart of the play is the complexity of decision-making, the narrow dividing line between right and wrong, and the way we treat each other.

In the public, people are forced to think. Brecht loved nothing better than giving the crowd a moral dilemma to conquer – he hated a passive public. So get ready to be challenged.

The company Basement Company has been in its own circle for months, getting closer and closer to how it can, in 2018, make this game relevant.

Its members are all under the age of 22 – all emerging artists who have explored the theater as part of the intensive year-long program with their main tutor, Dan Pengelly, Artistic Director of Centrepoint Theater of Palmerston North. Many also exercised their own practice outside of society.

They are our next generation and say they want to be heard. As a member of society, Grace Hadfield, says: "We are not always listened to." Like Brecht, they want the public to come, oppose the status quo and question things they thought they knew.

"We invite the public and let them know that it's about our space and we have a lot to say about the problems of the world – things that are often discarded, things we are interested in. We mean something and we use this piece as a way to get that message across. "

Nomuna Amarbat says that it is a position that gives power.

"We say what we are as young people, most of the time, the older generation can be complacent or passive about the current problems of society and we want to say that we are aware and that we want to do something for them. solve. "

They save time with this piece and use the original structure, which begins with a prologue, to their advantage. Principal Nathan Mudge explains that the prologue is a story about the moral dilemma of who should keep the baby.

"This immediately brings the audience to look at it critically from a different point of view, so you know how it is framed and here are the questions that are asked and here is how it is said."

The 19-member company eliminated Brecht's prologue and added his own. The cast members say that's what we are and that's why we want you to listen. Housed in an underground rave, Brecht's ideologies and techniques have been moved to what Mudge calls "contemporary puzzles".

"We have talked a lot about what we want to say and a lot of ideas about protest and activism have been put forward.We use this room as a vessel to do it, as it did. Brecht always asked why. "

The actor Aaron Whale said that he was going into the company, he knew the room was on the cards, and after what he had read, he 's sure he' s in it. was waiting for a dark scene and, he admits, "boring kind". to play. But within the group, it was commented that in reality it was not a dark room, "it's just strange and strange it's good".

"The characters are extreme and there is a lot of fun in it, so we focused on it, we separated from the black and became a celebration of this strange world."

It's a complete trip for the young company. The members make up the production team and take care of everything from costumes to sound, lighting and marketing. They are the first head and yes, said Whale, it's mad.

"But it is also a joy.There are different facets to work in the theater.As a youth company, we are not only confined to the acting game.We also discover the other roles, those we are interested in. It's really fun. "

It's in a youth enterprise that Mudge began his acting training. He therefore knows the importance of it.

"I come from a very religious and very conservative background, and the youth enterprise to which I joined has been very liberating. She has played an important role in my current life I was growing up because I was treated like an adult and I was encouraged to explore and express myself in a way that I could not do elsewhere.

Mudge brought this with him into this circle, creating a place where voices are heard, ideas are buried and contours are pushed. He listens to these voices because they are important and in the realm of Brecht, surrounded by a parable that rings with a timeless truth that they ask you to listen.

Caucasian chalk circle will take place at The Dark Room, Palmerston North, October 23-27. The company also opens the doors of its last dress rehearsal on October 22 for a koha performance. Proceeds from this show will go to Refuge for Women.