Needy and greedy prevail in Brecht's mythical town

Because it requires such a large cast and because it criticizes the very possibility of a happy ending, Bertolt Brecht's "The Good Woman of Setzuan" is seldom staged, and then only in colleges or subsidized regional theaters.

The current production at the UMBC Theatre -- which runs through Sunday -- is seriously flawed but not fatally so. Enough of it works to provide the welcome chance to see one of the century's greatest plays for four bucks.

Writing in Scandinavia at the end of the 1930s, Brecht set the play in a mythical town in the Chinese province of Setzuan during the same years. There has been grumbling that it is impossible to be good in such an evil world and that religious rules should thus be dismissed as unrealistic. Stung by such criticism, three gods have come down to the Earth looking for one good person who might rebut their critics.

In Setzuan, the gods are greeted by Wong, a rag-tag water-seller who lives in a sewer. Asked to find a good person to give the gods shelter, Wong implores his neighbors,

Three gods (or, if you prefer, Illustrious Ones) pass through the town of Setzuan, looking, like starry-eyed Marine recruiters, for a few good men. Only Shen Te, a prostitute played with warmth and intellitence by Wendy Salkind, offers them shelter. The gods decide that she's the only really good person they've met, and when they hear she's selling her body, they give her some money. With this, Shen Te starts a tobacco shop, but soom finds that

Some topics in this essay:
Shen Te, Shui Ta, UMBC Theatre, Eric Bentley's, Woman Setzuan, Yang Sun, Writing Scandinavia, Brecht's Woman, Wendy Salkind, Ktherine Mendeloff, shen te, woman setzuan, shui ta, umbc theatre, wendy salkind, 1983 --------------------------------------------------------------------------------, tobacco shop, evil world, brecht's woman, peter hertsgaard, brecht's woman setzuan, goodness evil world,