The "not....but" moment that we explored in the play helps to highlight the ideas of gestus and contradiction within Brecht's characters, ultimately making a greater comment on society.
Exploring a "not...but" moment in The Caucasian Chalk Circle as the scene wherein the Governors wife receives a message telling her that her palace has been overthrown and revolutionaries are on their way. In the play she flees, leaving her son Michael. Lots of other possibilities may include take Michael, accept her fate, suicide, negotiate, stay and fight. These "No...But" moments allow the audience to see the exact same scene with other possibilities changing the outcome. It allows the audience to see the character as a multi dimensional person and so allowing them to look critically at the characters without taking them for granted.
We found that staging the scene announcing the location and time period by the daughter (Katrin) that later became the dead person allowed the scene to become less about the audience caring personally for the daughter but rather allowed them to engage critically. The use of multi-rolling also allowed the audience to become less attached and more distance. Through use of song at the end allowed us to enter in more of Brecht's techniques, and added more spass to the performance. We also had many gestic moments within the scene displaying a sense of status and characters dimension so that the mother could show a "No...but" moment through a short gestic moment, showing her underlying care for her daughter. Other groups also included their versions of the Mother Courage and her Children scene and we found that although they included techniques that Brecht introduced they could've made their gestic moments even more heightened and clearer.
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