Audi Season of

The Good Soul of Szechuan

By Bertolt Brecht, Translated by David Harrower

24 JUL - 17 AUG 2014 — Drama

About.

Company

Auckland Theatre Company

Venue

Q Theatre

Duration

Advisory

None

Programme

Download

Shen Te is a "tart with a heart", compassionate and generous, even towards people who exploit her virtues. Three Gods on a fact-finding mission reward the only good person they can find, the prostitute Shen Te, with the means to start a little business. But that's when her troubles begin as everyone takes advantage of her good nature. To survive she creates a male alter ego, the ruthless and exploitative Shui Ta. However, Shen Te struggles to keep her world together switching between these two identities. Can her good soul endure the pressures of hardship when self-interest, deceit, corruption and opportunism are more readily rewarded?


German-born playwright Bertolt Brecht is one of the twentieth century's most respected and influential theatrical forces. As the father of modern "epic theatre", his work includes such classics as The Life of Galileo, Mother Courage and her Children and The Caucasian Chalk. With compatriot Kurt Weill, he wrote The Rise and fall of the City of Mahagonny and, perhaps most famously, The Threepenny Opera. In The Good Soul of Szechuan, Brecht has a created a dark and dazzling parable, timely as ever, which explores the place of love and goodness in a dauntingly complex world. It's hard to be good when you're broke; harder still if you are living in a broken world.


Packed with glorious characters, great music and song, The Good Soul of Szechuan promises to be a theatrical highlight of 2014. Unmissable!


"Tells a terrific story… makes you think, really think, about the place of love and goodness in a dauntingly complex world" The Times


"A dark spiky modern fairy-tale about the vicious cycle of poverty" Sunday Telegraph


"Some of my most satisfying theatre experiences have been Bertolt Brecht's works. This reinterpretation will showcase the talents of a truly multicultural cast of actors, singers and musicians headed by the brilliant Robyn Malcolm in the virtuoso dual lead roles of Shen Te and Shui Ta." Colin McColl

Book
Tickets.