Shen Teh

Shen Teh is a young woman living alone in Szechuan. At the play’s beginning, she is a prostitute. When she allows three gods to stay in her home for a night, they tell her that they are on the search for a good person in the world. She is the first to bring up the argument good people can’t always make good choices. She tries to be a good person and help the people less fortunate than her, but she realizes these people will keep taking from her until she has nothing left for herself. She dons the disguise of Shui Ta, a cousin she made up, and tries to use him to be more practical with her money and to safeguard her own future and that of her child.

After she creates her alter-ego cousin Shui Ta, she slowly begins to fade away as...