New Translation of Brecht's Comedy The Good Person of Setzuan at the New Workshop Theater

The gods (Ann Bonner, Stacy Dotson and Becky Bennett) meddle in the affairs of their earthly kingdom.

March 14, 2002    A new translation of an old Brecht classic makes its way onto the stage of the New Workshop Theater and, while the music and words may be different, the Brechtian concept of verfremdung (strange-making) is kept intact. This is a strange play, and the characters are strange people.

    To prove that the earth is fit to live in, three ancestral gods come to earth searching for a good person--someone who is able to keep their commandments and still survive the challenges of earthly existence. In the capital of the Chinese province of Setzuan they set their sights on Shen Te (Kimberly Courts), a young prostitute, and break their own rules by offering her money to help her carry out good deeds.

   Shen Te quits prostitution and buys a tobacco shop, planning to use the profits to assist her fellow man, but she is soon overwhelmed by pleas for help. In order to ensure her own survival Shen Te is forced to disguise herself as Shui Ta, her authoritative cousin, to protect her business from being ruined by freeloaders

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Dashing pilot Yang Sun (Daniel Roach) seduces former prostitute Shen Te (Kimberly Courts)

   In the midst of this double life, Shen Te becomes entangled in a torrid romance with an unemployed pilot (Daniel Roach). Her heart torn between helping him and saving her little shop, she struggles to conceal her pregnancy and maintain her disguise as the ruthless businessman Shui Ta. She succeeds so well in establishing her second identity that she is charged with murdering herself--a situation only the gods can sort out.

    Dramaturg Roxane Heinze and director Rosalie Purvis's fresh, fast, and funny new translation catapults this Brecht classic into the twenty-first century. The play's original title, Der gute Mensch von Sezuan, is usually translated as The Good Woman of Szechuan, but Heinze and Purvis have opted for the more accurate English translation The Good Person of Setzuan.

   The production features a diverse cast of sixteen Brooklyn College B.F.A. and M.F.A. students, a dynamic set design by Brooklyn College Professor Richard Kearny, theatrical costumes by M.F.A. student Tun Wei Lee, and an original sound score.

Shu Fu the Barber (Steven Nasrawy) apprehends Wong (Jonathan Todd) one of the homeless Shen Te has attracted.

   Brecht wrote the play, with the uncredited assistance of his mistress Margarete Steffin, in 1940 while in exile in Finland. The English version of the play, translated by Eric Bentley, premiered on Broadway in 1955 with Uta Hagen as Shen Te and Zero Mostel as Shu Fu the Barber.

    Brecht is no stranger to Brooklyn College. In 1943, while Brecht was visiting New York, Brooklyn College Professor Harry Slochower invited him to speak to the Brooklyn College German Club, which was then rehearsing the playwright's "The Informer." Later, Brecht lectured Slochower's Continental Drama class. "His 'address' was truly Brechtian," Slochower recalled. "Seating himself among the students, he began by challenging them to ask questions, displaying a kind of elementary application of his 'epic theater' technique."

    This eagerly anticipated show will be staged at the 150-seat New Workshop Theater in Whitman Hall, Thursday through Saturday, March 14 to March 16, at 8 p.m., with special matinee performances on Saturday and Sunday, March 16 and 17, at 2 p.m. Tickets are $4 for adults and $3 for Brooklyn College students. For more information, call (718) 951-4500

The Cast of The Good Person of Setzuan. The show runs from March 14 to 17 in the New Workshop Theater.