Play for study: The Caucasian Chalk Circle

An option for WJEC/Eduqas’ GCSE Component Three, The Caucasian Chalk Circleis a big-hearted and unusually happy play for Brecht. Grusha gets her man and her baby. It contains satirical, visual humour, and is chock-full of devices of Epic theatre. It's been performed by the great and the good, schools and youth companies, and references Bible stories and Chinese legends.

The play is didactic and unashamedly lefty, with moral worth given to the collective. Brecht's juicy ability to cause trouble might also animate learners – get them to look into the attentions of the Un-American Activities committee in 1947, his split with celebrated actress Luise Rainer, and the problems with William Gaskill's fascinatingly radical 1962 RSC production (edited at the 11th hour by Peter Hall).