Q Theatre, Auckland
Robyn Malcolm stars in The Good Soul of Szechuan playing Shen Te, a young prostitute trying to live a moral life as taught to her by the Gods. Used and abused by the local towns people, Shen Te creates a male alter ego to protect herself.
From the Promo:
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 a 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.
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