The Caucasian Chalk Circle

Content Warning: This play references sizeism, fascism, child neglect, and sexual harassment.

“As an expert of the Reconstruction Commission, I request the two kolchos villages to decide between themselves whether the Galinsk kolchos shall return here or not.”

The opening scene of The Caucasian Chalk Circle takes place outside of the play within a play format. In the Prologue, the primary conflict is between two kolkhoz (Soviet collective farms) villages who are disputing who owns the land that has been abandoned by the Nazis towards the end of World War II. This framing device mirrors the conflict in the parable that is then played out for them: the two villages deciding who should own the land parallels the birth mother and the foster mother disputing with whom their child should live.

“Because you can’t like it. Because it’s not what it was in the old days. And why isn’t it? Because our goats don’t like the new grass as they used to like the old. Cheese is not cheese because grass is not grass, that’s it.”

In the first scene, the Old Man is a character who reveals what life was like before the Nazis, and the amount of care he and his people used to put into the land before it was taken from them. While some characters think that the cheese from the goats is good enough, the Old Man remembers a time when it was better. The land isn’t being cared for the way it used to, which means that everything in that ecosystem is off.

“It’s true that we have to consider a piece of land as a tool with which one produces something useful. But it’s also true that we must recognize the love for a particular piece of land.”

This quote foreshadows the difference between how the Governor’s Wife and Grusha view Michael. For the Governor’s Wife, Michael may be her flesh and blood but he is, ultimately, the heir that will maintain her lavish lifestyle.