March 16 to April 1, 2012

A parable

A kitchen maid, Grusha, has the seemingly unfortunate destiny of caring for an abandoned baby of royal blood (eventually becoming a better mother than its natural parents), while a village recorder, named Azdak, plays an essential part in deciding Grusha's fate.

The story:

We begin at a small village in Russia in 1944. Two communities of workers are coming together to decide the fate of a fertile valley -- who will make better use of the valley? The people who live there now and love the land? Or the new folks who are moving in to claim the richness of the soil as fruit farmers? To ease the tension among the people, a storyteller is called to provide entertainment for the meeting -- and thus begins the story of The Chalk Circle.

The storyteller acts as singing narrator with his band of rag-tag and multi-talented musicians, who set the scenes as we move through the story, featuring all the townspeople from the meeting as multiple characters with incredible talents.

We meet the governor and his family, who are about to be usurped by a Fat Prince and his army, and a maid, Grusha, who works in their household. In the first few minutes after the revolt begins, Grusha meets her love, Simon, who proposes and asks her to wait for him as he leaves for war. She swears she will wait, and he leaves her.

Meanwhile, the governor's head is paraded through the streets on a stake, and the governor's wife is hiding out back ordering her servants to be sure to bring all her beautiful dresses as she flees.

In the shuffle, the governor's child, Michael, just a baby, is forgotten by all, and left to die.

Grusha, who has a tender heart, takes the baby and leaves him on the doorstep of a nearby peasant's house, but the peasants almost immediately give him up to the soldiers who wish to kill him (and the entire governor's family).

Grusha takes the baby and flees to her brother's house, where she meets his pious wife, who requires Grusha to marry so as not to have an illegitimate child around. Grusha marries a man who is sick to the point of death, in hopes he will leave her a widow before Simon returns, but he, much to her chagrin, rallies, and she is forced to be his wife.

Years pass.

Simon returns from the war to find Grusha a married woman with a child. Before she can explain, he leaves her, and is passed by soldiers who come to claim the child, now a small boy, in the name of the governor's wife, who has returned to power and is in need of an heir.

And so they are taken to court, a court overseen by Azdak -- a judge known far and wide for his wise but not always "fair" rulings -- a "bribe-taker" who uses his law book as a seat to make him appear taller, but for little else. And it is Azdak who will determine Grusha's ultimate fate through the use of The Chalk Circle.