The War Ravaged Caucasus Mountain Village

A war ravaged mountain village is the setting for Brecht’s prologue to The Caucasian Chalk Circle, a gloomy space for such a communitarian scene. The play opens up with character’s discussing their situation, as one tractorist points to where she and her fellow farmers stopped the advancing Nazi tanks, after the orchard had been obliterated. These minute details in the dialogue paint a vivid picture of what cannot be portrayed on stage: the destruction of not simply objects, but the mode of existence for a group of people. Yet, the setting remains almost utopian despite these aesthetic and ideological connotations, as the two farms amicably discuss to whom the farm belongs.

The Palace

The Palace functions as a symbol almost as much as setting: the only scene that occurs in the palace is the first, but even then it occurs near...