(Bertolt Breckt, playwrite of The Good Person of Szechwan, found on a Google Image Search)
The Good Person of Szechwan by Bertolt Breckt is one of the plays I have trouble understanding this semester. I was especially not a fan of his moments where he broke the illusion of the pseudo reality created by the play. Breckt is famous for this, and although I have not had a problem yet with the direct address to the audience, the occasional song, the experimental, or the odd almost insulting humor, this was a little too much for me.
Breckt breaks the theatrical illusion in two ways: direct addresses to the audience and with random songs and verse thrown in amongst the scenes of the play.
I didn’t mind is direct address to the audience so much in the beginning of the play, because they were ways to introduce the characters and in some ways heightened the sense of anxiety Wang felt trying to find a place for the Gods.
It was more of the songs and verses that bothered me. I realize some of these songs and verses gave you a flavor of the culture Breckt was choosing to set his play in, but their breaking of the illusion was way too strong and far too frequent for my liking. It was confusing and broken the train of the play. So I found myself becoming quickly confused and I actually had to read the play completely through twice before I realized that Shen Teh and Shui Ta were the same person.
This play was very confusing, and the breaking of the illusions did not help, I kept thinking the songs were symbolic of something, or representative of the next scene in the play, but it seems they are just kind of randomly thrown in there. This creates an unnecessary distraction as far as I’m concerned. I’ve never been a huge fan of musicals but I can respect and admire the genre, and at least in musicals the songs included make sense to the story line….
The ending also bothered me. It was way to quickly wrapped up (if you can even call it a wrap up). Breckt throws the solution on to the audience. Which I realize why he’s doing, but how do you solve the problem of people being too good and innocent at heart to say no to helping people? Make it so people don’t need help? That’s pretty well impossible. If Breckt is trying to do a call to action here, he needs to be clear about WHAT action he wants the audience to solve.
The Good Person of Szechwan is confusing and the illusion breaking is startling. I like theater, books, movies, and art to pull me. I like to get lost in something. Not necessarily always for the idea of escapism, but I like something to be so realistic or well written or a character to interesting that I get pulled in and lost in their lives for a brief little bit. I get to experience a variety of perspectives and interests this way. With Breckt’s I never quite felt his characters were developed nor was his plot. It was just random instances connected with songs.
The only think I could identify with on some level, is the small feminist reading I could do of Shen Teh. I understand her frustration of trying to be a woman in business and having everyone walk all over you because you are so ‘warm and cuddly’ that you will be able to help every single charity or charity case, because you can’t say no like a man can. So I understand and sympathize with her when she chooses to invent a male identity and pass as a male.
So, I did get something out of it, but it was only have long and careful reflection and frustration that I go there. It wasn’t even gratifying to me to have found it. I don’t always want my message easily laid out for me, but I want my plays to have a sturdy plot and be connected by more than just a musical number here and there. I’m not impressed with Breckt’s contribution to Modern Drama thus far, maybe after we discuss it in class I’ll have softened my opinion or be convinced of something else, but I just didn’t think it was that well written of a play.
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