The Good Person of Szechwan : Der gute Mensch von Sezuan, first translated less literally as The Good Woman of Setzuan is a play written by the , in collaboration with and. The play was begun in 1938 but not completed until 1941, while the author was in exile in the. It was first performed in 1943 at the in , with a musical score and songs by Swiss composer. Today, 's composition of the songs from 1947-48, also authorized by Brecht, is the better-known version. Brecht's interest in is evident in the play's definition of contemporary morality and in social and economic terms. Shen Teh's altruism conflicts with Shui Ta's ethos of. The play implies that. The play opens with Wong, a water seller, explaining to the audience that he is on the city outskirts awaiting the foretold appearance of several important. Soon the gods arrive and ask Wong to find them shelter for the night. They are tired, having travelled far and wide in search of good people who still live according to the principles that they, the gods, have handed down. Instead they have found only greed, evil, dishonesty, and selfishness. The same turns out to be true in Szechwan: no one will take them in, no one has the time or means to care for others - no one except the poor young prostitute Shen Teh, whose pure inherent cannot allow her to turn away anyone in need. Shen Teh was going to see a customer, but decides to help out instead; however, confusion follows, leaving Wong fleeing from the illustrious Ones and leaving his water behind. Shen Teh is rewarded for her hospitality, as the gods take it as a sure sign of goodness. They give her money and she buys a humble shop which they intend as both gift and test: will Shen Teh be able to maintain her goodness with these newfound means, however slight they may be? If she succeeds, the gods' confidence in humanity would be restored. Though at first Shen Teh seems to live up to the gods' expectations, her generosity quickly turns her small shop into a messy, overcrowded which attracts crime and police supervision. In a sense, Shen Teh quickly fails the test, as she is forced to introduce the invented cousin Shui Ta as overseer and protector of her interests. Shen Teh dons a costume of male clothing, a mask, and a forceful voice to take on the role of Shui Ta. Shui Ta arrives at the shop, coldly explains that his cousin has gone out of town on a short trip, curtly turns out the hangers-on, and quickly restores order to the shop. At first, Shui Ta only appears when Shen Teh is in a particularly desperate situation, but as the action of the play develops, Shen Teh becomes unable to keep up with the demands made on her and is overwhelmed by the promises she makes to others. Therefore, she is compelled to call on her cousin's services for longer periods until at last her true personality seems to be consumed by her cousin's severity. Where Shen Teh is soft, compassionate, and vulnerable, Shui Ta is unemotional and pragmatic, even vicious; it seems that only Shui Ta is made to survive in the world in which they live. In what seems no time at all, he has built her humble shop into a full-scale tobacco factory with many employees. Shen Teh also meets an unemployed male pilot, Yang Sun, whom she quickly falls in love with after preventing him from hanging himself. However, Yang Sun doesn't return Shen Teh's feelings but simply uses her for money and Shen Teh quickly falls pregnant with his child. Eventually one of the employees hears Shen Teh crying, but when he enters only Shui Ta is present. The employee demands to know what he has done with Shen Teh, and when he cannot prove where she is, he is taken to court on the charge of having hidden or possibly murdered his cousin. The townspeople also discover a bundle of Shen Teh's clothing under Shui Ta's desk, which makes them even more suspicious. During the process of her trial, the gods appear in the robes of the judges, and Shui Ta says that he will make a confession if the room is cleared except for the judges. At the end, following a hasty and though literal , the narrator throws the responsibility of finding a solution to the play's problem onto the shoulders of the audience. It is for the spectator to figure out how a good person can possibly come to a good end in a world that, in essence, is not good. The play relies on the possibilities of this problem, and on the assumption that the spectator will be moved to see that the current structure of society must be changed in order to resolve the problem. The first English-language performance in Britain, as The Good Woman of Setzuan, was given at the in in 1953. The company also took the production on tour in Europe in 1976. This version was subsequently licensed through. This retained several features of the 1943 version, including the themes of and drug-dealing. Indian theatre director directed an Indian adaptation of this play by Amitabha Srivastava in 1996 with , and Aparna Singh as lead actors. The play first appeared in English as The Good Woman of Setzuan 1948; revised 1961 by and has been translated as The Good Person of Sichuan 1990 by , and more recently as The Good Soul of Szechuan 2008 by. See Willett and Manheim 1994 , Bentley 2007 , Hofmann 1990 , and Harrower 2008. The Theatre of Bertolt Brecht: A Study from Eight Aspects. The Theatre of Bertolt Brecht: A Study from Eight Aspects. Bentley introduced the spelling Setzuan as a transcription of the German ' Sezuan' and defends it in the forward to the 1999 printing ; other translators have used the names Szechuan or Szechwan. The Theatre of Bertolt Brecht: A Study from Eight Aspects. Thomson, Peter and Glendyr Sacks, eds. The Cambridge Companion to Brecht. Cambridge Companions to Literature Ser. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. An Introduction to the Social and Political Philosophy of Bertolt Brecht: Revolution and Aesthetics. The Good Woman of Setzuan. The Good Woman of Setzuan. New York: Grove Press, 1965. The Good Soul of Szechuan. The Good Person of Sichuan: The National Theatre Version. Methuen Modern Plays ser. The Good Person of Szechwan. In Collected Plays: Six. Bertolt Brecht: Plays, Poetry, Prose.
