Brecht the Parable-Weaver

St. Pancras Arts Festival: Thle Good Woman of Setzuan

The parable-weaver is hardly likely to be popular, but if he wants to get home he should be spectacular. At his best, Brecht can force almost anyone over to his own commitments through sheer splendour of vision and three dimensional understatement: Mother Courage would be heroic in any language. At his most evangelical, be has the forbidding good will of a muscular philanthropist rattling his tin in a hopeless cause.

This, presumably. is the point he wished to make-that conscience should transcend self-esteem: but in Clive Barker's production of The Good Wonan of Selzuan there is more kudos for the Unity Theatre than for humanity

The climax of the current Unity season, this is being given as part of the St. Pancras Arts Festival before transferring to Goldington Street. The echoing dimness of

the Town Hall is very much to its disadvantage, and it may well be that the production will work far better on the small stage and in the friendly atmosphere of the home theatre. At present, however, it is not clear whether one is watching an opera or a circus: directed with an ear to the gallery it presents diminutive impersonal ciphers moving round an impersonal set to deliver impersonal messages of good will in the face of adversity. It is impossible to get involved in the fate of the small Chinese businesswo-man who, through the didactic action of the story, comes to realize that material success, domestic happiness. and good neighbourliness are of no importance compared withr self-realization and the care of the helpless.

The play is full of assertive symbols: Shen Teh by contrast should be all the more human. That she is not is the fault of the writer rather than of Patanne Fairfoot. The production is efficient, but not very inspired.