The Guardian from London, Greater London, England • 41

The Guardian Wednesday April 23 1997 1 1 Review National Theatre, London Brecht's plays have been consistently undermined in this country by the Hierarchical structure of British theatre. But one of the great things about Simon McBumey's production of The Caucasian Chalk Circle, staged at the National in collaboration with Theatre de Complkite, is that it feels exhilaratingly democratic. In part this is because of the conversion of the Olivier into an in-tbc-round pace. With the circle blocked off and toe stage overhung by Tim Hatley's silken canvas, on to which images are projected, feels like an intimate indoor circus Brecht meets Bertram Mills. The sense of a democratic experience is enhanced by the molti-roled casting, so that Juliet Stevenson turns op as die fugitive Archduke as well as Grusha, and McBumey's own Azdak emcigea from the ensemble.

McBorneys other achievesnent is to reaaiad us of the play's Georgian setting. Brecht never visited has incofporated to polyphonic amak into his production score. Eii though Prank McGninaess's Suwu 'ubbbi sEbbbbb 9bbbbb gk iB -subw snuui gggggggggBgtagZr-- iL MJggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggga VHHggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggf BHiiliHKiiiiillillillillillillillH JjgBf UABHBHggggggggggggggggggl rffil: Tte" nmfluwMsSBBssNlwwBFIlBBsssssssa -JBP TSHtbP fSttftBn uuissuKilBBBSssssMlwwBsssssssa BBssBBBsssssssssaaBasHWBsasn BssssssssssssssssmVwBslLsnwBsssssssa X2at7i3iiBBnnuuauinuam xgggggggtnHSBVBBvBBwBBBBBV-' TSEBSUPStMssassssssssnn ssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssvsulum "'gggggggggggggggggggggggggggggjggggggjl' SMrrBm vggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggg. 9insiiuuuuum tssnuHBmnuuuuuuuuuuuuum ggggggggggggggggggf bHhhhhhhhHhhbb-- "Iwuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuum ggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggiHggggggggggggggg gggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggg ggggggggggggggggggggg lie don't and is le world violent Veknow ther it's ng with hatever. results." ird man ic Ulster icoole, a on the ay isn't of these but he latGary timately.

icock in more of leofthe 5 scene. In A offered Theatre another a smile, ir Stuart ring in Frank took it teres a roudly. Kin the which xiptand Victoria ayed to roubles tkmsof in the tut such rather rn Irish 0 tell, or se really Gerry ference 1 better and pitous Aged to wd and of Ulster accents, we fuel we are watching a Georgian The roflapar of communism is supposed to have left Brecht and his piays dead aa a dodo. But The Chalk Circle, which was written between 1943 and 196, stfll works -party because is a a piece of epic story-testing and partly because it aaks faudssiu nl si auea-tfcma. Who ahould own what? Is pnssrarlnn nine-tenths of the law? It poses these queatious through the story of the servant-girl Grusha, who rescues a Georgian governor's baby son and then has to face the dainu of the natural mother for the child's return.

Brecht's main point "What there is should belong to those who are good for it" -remains as subversive as ever. His parable is presented here with just the right visual economy. The famous alienation-effect even into the play throuxh the Nobody knows the Troubles we've seen presentation of the governor's son: what we see is a stage-baby whose mewttng sounds are made by a black-mashed operator. Juliet Stevenson rightly eschews heroic pathos snd piays Grnsha ere Gill and MacMillan. "It will cover the entire Protestant culture which isn't supposed to exist, of course." In fairness, he accepts that Unionists, loyalists, Prods, Orangies call them what you will have made little effort to put over their side of the story during the past 30 years.

"There's a deep suspicion of anything to do with the arts and the media. When I began writing plays, I was advised to stop. It was a murky world run by Catholics and nationalists." Mitchell's background is steeped in the UDA, the Protestant paramilitary organisation that sprang up in response to the Provisionals' bombing campaign in the early seventies. When it was declared illegal in 1992, ail the family's links with it were severed. He has a brother who is an evangelical minister.

His life, he says, is ordinary. Having left school at 16 with barely any qualifications and spent the next six years unemployed, he could so easily have "got but in his own words "decided to lead a decent He finally secured a job in the civil service but felt his life "rotting He had ambitions to become an actor and joined an amateur group, which disappointed him when the other members decided it was too danger ous to improvise a play about real life in Belfast So when he spotted a radio competition, he set hit world down on paper. The World, The Fleah And The Devil won and, encouraged by Pam Brighton of BBC Radio Northern Ireland, he has been writing ever since. Mainstream success still eludes another Protestant writer, Brian Ervine, but he is happy to work at grassroots level, encouraging working-class loyalists to oelebtate their culture. His play Somme Day Mourning was staged by the Shankill Theatre Community Group and toured Ireland, ending up in the Falls Road Cul-turlann.

"It was the first play in the English language to appear there," says Ervine, whose brother David leads the Progressive Unionist Party. "I see my job as to articulate a culture which has been suppressed for political reasons. The template of Irish nationalism was created in the last century, a world entirely Gaelic and Catholic. It was reinforced by Eamon de Valera, who looked on the Ulster Protestants as a rock to be blasted out of the way. Many Irish nationalists denigrate or patronise my culture because it doesn't fit their template.

They tell me, You don't have a But it's a lot more complex than of Qary MMmN, prawd Mrilior of the tmI Prod ptoy In A Uttm World 0 Our Own nationalism: it's richer because it's British and Irish at the same time. Take Orange ism, for example, which it's fashionable to deride now. It's rich with music and history. I'm not an Orangeman myself, but it's an expression of many people's lives, and I'm not going to disown it" Both Ervine and Mitchell dream that July 12, the anniversary of the Battle of the Boyne and the peak of the marching season, might one day be a festival like Mardi Gras. In the meantime, there is work to be done.

There is a smell of a Prague Spring in the air, little green (or rather, orange) shoots pushing up through 25 years of frost "There's people who would like me to be a propagandist," says Mitchell, "but I'm only interested in people as they are. I'm writing plays about the struggles of life, and whether you're Protestant or Catholic is meaningless to me. Hopefully others will be encouraged by my success and go on in other areas of the arts and sec that the world iant stacked against them as much as they think." excellently as a tough, gritty peasant woman driven to do good by oaencaaMe instinct; with his council He men, rad- McBuraey plays Aadak as a toothy, bespectacled, de-trousered figure strangely hhe Brecht in his combi-nation of financial sluewdness and flre- Ibr 30 years no one wanted to know about olic belief in natural justice. But even though Brecht wrote two rich star-parta, this resaaias a company Northern Ireland's Protestant culture. Now wfch una superbly democra ahandnuotplawightsaretryingtoend the isolation.

David Sharrock reports tic production, Complicfle have stalled their own claim to the trans-forsaed OHvier stage. In lap at OSvtor (01 71 -928 2252) til Junals..