8
Cut stage direction and Mrs. Yang’s speech, following the song.
9
Cut from ‘SHUI TA, pitifully’ to ‘in Mrs. Shin’s arms’ (p. 91), also the stage direction and Wang’s first speech in the interlude following.
10
Cut from ‘Mr Shui Ta, on the other hand’ to ‘from straight perjury’. (pp. 102–3). Again, there was no epilogue.
5. THE SANTA MONICA VERSION
Even before the Zurich production Brecht had tried to arouse interest in the play in the U.S., but without yet attempting to modify it for the very different audience there. It was only later, when Kurt Weill thought he might be able to arrange a Broadway production, that Brecht in New York hurriedly made what he termed ‘a szechwan version for here.’ Though this has not been firmly identified, it could well be the ‘story’ printed on p. 325 ff., which was found inside one of the duplicated copies of the Finnish version, from which however it differs extensively. The full script embodying this story, typed by Brecht himself and marked ‘only copy,’ was headed ‘1943 version’ and datelined Santa Monica 1943, so that it must have been written after his return there from New York at the end of May, probably once the main work on Schweyk had been completed. By September 20 Brecht’s journal shows that Christopher Isherwood had read the play but was not interested enough to want to translate it as its author had hoped. Thereafter, as Weill began to think rather of making a ‘semi-opera’ of it, the new script was set aside and apparently forgotten, subsequent U.S. translations and productions being based, so far as we know, on the previous version. This seems surprising in view of Brecht’s success not only in shortening and simplifying the play but also in shedding a more critical light on the heroine’s goodness, and thus interweaving the ideas of good and evil as he wanted in the earlier journal entry printed on p. 332. The principal differences from our text are as follows:
Prologue
As before.
1
The stage direction for the entry of the elderly couple on p. 13 adds ‘The wife and the shabbily dressed man are carrying sacks on their shoulders.’ Then there is a long cut from Mrs. Mi Tzu’s entry (p. 17) to the nephew’s ‘Over the shelving’ (p. 18), after which the former’s exit speech, starting ‘Well, I shall also be glad’, and the wife’s ensuing comment, ending ‘all about you by the morning,’ (p. 18) are likewise cut.
2
Unchanged up to where Shui Ta bows (p. 27–8). Thereafter the rest of the scene is different, thus:
SHUI TA: There’s just one thing: aren’t you going to take your sacks?
THE HUSBAND, giving him a conspiratorial look: What sacks? You know we didn’t bring any sacks with us.
SHUI TA, slowly: Oh. Then either my cousin got it wrong or I must have misunderstood her. To the policeman: It’s quite all right.
THE POLICEMAN: Get going, you! he drives them out.
THE GRANDFATHER, solemnly, from the doorway: Good morning. Exit all, except Shui Ta.
Shui Ta hastens backstage and brings out a sack.
SHUI TA, showing the sack to the audience: Opium! He hears somebody approaching and quickly hides the sack.
THE POLICEMAN, reentering: I’ve handed those crooks over to my colleague. Forgive my coming back. I would like to thank you in the name of the police.
SHUI TA: It is for me to thank you, officer.
THF POLICEMAN, negligently: You were saying something about sacks. Did those crooks leave anything here, Mr. Shui Ta?
SHUI TA: Not a button. Do you smoke?
THE POLICEMAN, putting two cigars in his pocket: Mr. Shui Ta, I must admit we at the station began by viewing this shop with mixed feelings, but your decisive action on the side of the law just now showed us the sort of man you are. We don’t take long to find out who can be relied on as a friend of law and order. I only hope you will be staying here.
SHUI TA: Unfortunately I shall not be staying here and I cannot come again. I was able to give my cousin a hand just because I was passing through; I merely saved her from the worst. Any minute now she will be thrown back on her own resources. I am worried as to what will happen.
THE POLICEMAN: All you have to do is find a husband for her.
SHUI TA: A husband?
THE POLICEMAN, eagerly: Why not? She’s a good match. Between you and me and the doorpost I had a hint only yesterday from Mr. Shu Fu, the barber next door, that he is taking a flattering interest in the young lady, and he’s a gentleman who owns twelve houses and has only one wife and an old one at that. He went so far as to ask about her financial standing. That shows real affection …
SHUI TA, cautiously: It’s not a bad idea. Could you arrange a meeting?
THE POLICEMAN: I think so. It would have to be done delicately, of course. Mr. Shu Fu is very sensitive. I’d say, an accidental meeting outside the teahouse by the city lake. There’s a bath-hut there; I know because I had the good fortune to make an arrest there last week. Miss Shen Teh should be looking at the goldfish and in her delight could let drop some remark such as … well, what?
SHUI TA: Look at the pretty goldfish.
THE POLICEMAN: Brilliant. And Mr. Shu Fu could reply, let’s say, for example…
SHUI TA: All I can see is a pretty face mirrored in the water, madam.
THE POLICEMAN: Perfect. I’ll speak to Mr. Shu Fu at once. Don’t think, Mr. Shui Ta, that the authorities have no sympathy for the honest businessman.
SHUI TA: Indeed I foresaw a black outlook for this little shop which my cousin regards as a gift of the gods. Bur now I see a way out. It is almost frightening how much luck one needs in order to live, what brilliant ideas, what good friends.
3
Up to p. 36 f. the first two-thirds of the scene are unchanged, except that on p. 33 and again on p. 36 Shen Teh ‘has got’ to marry the man she is meeting at the teahouse, not merely ‘is going’ to. Then from ‘Have you got a friend?’ at the end of Sun’s speech (p. 36) to Shen Teh’s ‘And that was a raindrop’ (p. 37) there is a cut and the following is substituted:
SHEN TEH: They say that to speak without hope is to speak without kindness.
SUN: I have no hope. I need 500 dollars to be human. This morning when a letter came saying there was a job for me the first thing I did was to get myself a rope; you see, it costs 500 dollars.
SHEN TEH: It’s a flier’s job? He nods, and she slowly goes on. I have a friend, a cousin of mine, who might be able to raise that amount. This friend is too cunning and hard. It really would have to be the last time. But a flier must fly, that’s obvious.
SUN: What do you think you are talking about?
SHEN TEH: Please come tomorrow to Sandalmakers’ Street. You’ll find a small tobacco shop. If I’m not there my cousin will be.
SUN, laughs: And if your cousin isn’t there nobody will be, is that it? He looks at her. Your shawl’s really the prettiest thing about you.
SHEN TEH: Yes? Pause. And now I’ve felt a raindrop.
And so on as in our text, up to the end of the poem on p. 38. The scene then finishes thus:
WANG: Weren’t you meeting somebody in the park who was going to be able to help you?
SHEN TEH: Yes, but now I’ve found somebody I am going to be able to help, Wang.
After that come the stage direction (She pays…) and her last laughing remark to Wang as we have them.
4
Is omitted, only the first six lines from Shen Teh’s monologue about the city (p. 42) being kept and transposed to a new interlude before scene 7.
The interlude before the curtain which follows remains unchanged.
5
Instead of as on p. 50 Mrs. Shin’s first speech reads:
MRS SHIN: I may be an old gossip, Mr. Shui Ta, but I think you should know what’s going on. Once people start talking about how Miss Shen Teh never comes home before morning — and you know we have all the scum of the district hanging round the shop at crack of dawn to get a plate of rice – then a shop
like this gets a bad name, and where do you go from there?
On page 50 for Sun’s ‘Oh boy. I’m going to be flying again’ substitute ‘Neat, very neat.’ For 300 dollars (three times) read 500. For the two lines ‘it was good of her’ to ‘or I’m stuck’ read ‘Nothing for it, we’ll have to sell.’ Then omit Shui Ta’s next two sentences, (from ‘Perhaps’ to ‘her business’), and for Sun’s ‘All to her credit of course’ below substitute ‘Really’. About a page further on delete Shui Ta’s sentence about the 200 dollars and the rent, and for both mentions of 250 dollars (amount of Sun’s pay in Peking) substitute 150 dollars. In Shui Ta’s next speech, for ‘the landlady’ (p. 52) substitute ‘the lady tobacco merchant’ (Tabakhändlerin). The dialogue from that point reads:
THE LADY TOBACCO MERCHANT, enters: Good morning, Mr. Shui Ta. Are you really wanting to sell the shop?
SHUI TA: Mrs. Mi Tzu, my cousin is contemplating marriage, and her future husband – he introduces Yang Sun – Mr. Yang Sun, is taking her to Peking where they wish to start a new life. If I can get a good price for my tobacco I shall sell it.
THE LADYTOBACCO MERCHANT: How much do you need?
SHUI TA: 500 in cash.
THE LADYTOBACCO MERCHANT: How much did your stock cost?
SHUI TA: My cousin originally paid 1000 silver dollars, and very little of it has been sold.
THE LADY TOBACCO MERCHANT: 1000 silver dollars! She was swindled of course. I’ll make you an offer: you can have 300 silver dollars for the whole business, if you move out the day after tomorrow.
SUN: All right. That’s it, old boy!
SHUI TA: It’s too little.
SUN: We’d consider that, certainly, but 300 isn’t enough. Like an auctioneer. First-class tobacco, recently acquired, in admirable condition, price 1000 dollars F.O.B. Together with complete shop fittings and a growing clientèle, attracted by the good looks of the proprietress. The whole to be knocked down for only 500 dollars due to special circumstances. It’s an opportunity that mustn’t be missed. Now you’re an intelligent woman, you know what life’s about, it’s written all over you. He strokes her. You know what love is, it’s plain to see. The shop’s got to go, selling below cost price due to hasty marriage – the sort of chance that occurs once in a business lifetime.
THE LADY TOBACCO MERCHANT, not unaffected, but still firmly: 300 dollars.
SUN, with a sidelong glance at Shui Ta: Not enough, but better than nothing, what? 300 in hand would give us room to turn around in.
SHUI TA, alarmed: But 300 won’t get us the job.
SUN: OK, but what good is a shop to me?
SHUI TA: But everything would have gone, there’d be nothing to live on.
SUN: But I’d have the 300 dollars. To the lady tobacco merchant. It’s a deal. Lock, stock, and barrel for 300 dollars, and our troubles are over. How soon can we have the 300?
THE LADY TOBACCO MERCHANT: Right away. She pulls notes from her bag. Here, 300 dollars, and that’s because I’m glad to help where it seems to be a case of young love.
SUN, to Shui Ta: Write down 300 on the contract. Shen Teh’s signature’s already on it, I see. Shui Ta fills in the figure and hands the contract to the lady tobacco merchant. Sun takes the notes away from him.
THE LADY TOBACCO MERCHANT: Good-bye, Mr. Yang Sun; goodbye, Mr. Shui Ta. Please remember me to Miss Shen Teh. Goes out.
SUN, sits down exhausted on the counter: We’ve made it, old boy.
SHUI TA: But it’s not enough.
SUN: That’s right. We need another 200. You’ll have to find them.
SHUI TA: How am I to do that without stealing?
SUN: Your cousin certainly thought you were the right man to find them.
SHUI TA: Perhaps I am. Slowly. I took it that the point at issue was Shen Teh’s happiness. A person’s goodness, they said, doesn’t have to be denied to that person and the same applies to his or her compassion.
SUN: Right, partner. O boy, I’m going to be flying again!
SHUI TA, smiling and with a bow: A flier has to fly. Negligently. Have you got the money for both your tickets, and enough to tide you over?
Thereafter the dialogue continues as we have it from Sun’s ‘Sure’ (p.53) to the Pause on p. 54. Then Shui Ta continues:
I should like you to hand me back the 300 dollars, Mr. Yang Sun, and leave them in my custody until you are able to show me two tickets to Peking.
SUN: Why? You mean you don’t trust me?
SHUI TA: I don’t trust anybody.
SUN: Why specially me?
They look at each other.
SUN: My dear brother-in-law, I would prefer it if you didn’t meddle in the intimate affairs of people in love. We don’t understand one another, I see. As for the other 200 I’ll have to rely on the girl.
SHUI TA, incredulously: Do you really expect her to give up everything for you if you aren’t even thinking of taking her along?
SUN: She will. Even so.
SHUI TA: And you are not afraid of what I might have to say against it?
Then back to our text from Sun’s ‘My dear man’ (p. 54), but with the following modifications. First of all Sun’s exit speech (pp. 54–55) ends after puts the box under his arm’.
And now I’m to go and wait outside the shop, and don’t let it worry you if we’re a bit late tonight. We’re having supper together and we’ll be talking about the missing 200.
Then Mrs. Shin’s second sentence ‘And the whole Yellow Alley’ is cut, as is her speech following the poem (p. 55). Instead Shen Teh concludes the poem by saying ‘Fetch Mr. Shu Fu the barber at once,’ and Shin ‘dashes off. About a page later there is a long cut from Wang’s entry with the policeman (p. 56) to immediately before Shui Ta’s ‘I shall hasten to inform my cousin’ (p. 58). Roughly two pages after that, Sun’s ‘But I can put up a fight’ (p. 60) is followed by a new insertion ‘Look me in the eyes. Do you really believe I can’t be in love with you without a dowry?’ before continuing ‘They’re wrecking’ and so on as in our text. Finally, after Shen Teh’s ‘I want to go away with Sun’ (p. 60) Sun says ‘Bring your shawl, the blue one,’ and ‘Shen Teh fetches the shawl she wore in the park’ before Sun goes on ‘We are in love, you know’ and so on to the end.
The ensuing interlude (p. 61) is partly absorbed in the new interlude outside a teahouse (see below).
6
Is omitted, as is the interlude (pp. 71–3) which follows it.
Interlude Outside a Teahouse
This is mainly new. Carrying a small sack, Shen Teh addresses the audience as at the beginning of our scene 4 (p. 42), from ‘I had never seen the city at dawn’, but omitting the sentence ‘It was a long walk’ etc. After ‘filling his lungs with fresh air and reaching for his tools’ (p. 43) she continues:
And here is the Teahouse of Bliss where I am supposed to sell this little sack so that Sun may fly again. She tries to enter, but guests are leaving. They are opium smokers, human wrecks, stumbling and freezing. A young man takes out his purse, finds it empty and throws it away. A hideous old woman escorts a very young drugged girl. That’s terrible. It’s opium that has ruined them like that. She looks at her sack in horror. It’s poison. How could I think of selling this? It doesn’t even belong to me. How could I forget that too?
Then she goes into the monologue on p. 61, starting at ‘In the tumult of my feelings’, omitting the sentence ‘How could I simply have forgotten two good old people?’ and ending after ‘he will understand’ (p. 62) with:
He would rather get a job at the cement works than owe his flying to a filthy deal. I must go to him at once.
7 [renumbered 6]
After the opening stage direction, which is as in our text, Mrs. Shin’s speech is changed to read: ‘There you are, your shop’s gone and the whole district knows that for weeks that pilot of yours has been boozing away the money in the lowest sort of bar.’ Shen Teh says nothing. Then Shin continues ‘All gone, eh’ as in our text (p. 73), down to Shen Teh’s �
��earn a bit as a tobacco sorter?’ Then:
A child appears in the gateway to the yard.
MRS. SHIN, shooing it away: Clear out, you! To Shen Teh: Those gutter vultures only need to get one sniff of bankruptcy and before you know it they come around stuffing their pockets.
SHEN TEH: Oh, let him look through my junk. He might find something worth taking.
MRS. SHIN: If there’s anything worth taking I’m taking it. You haven’t paid me for the washing yet. Beat it or I’ll call the police! Child disappears.
Shen Teh then asks ‘Why are you so unpleasant?’ introducing the poem as on p. 77. After it Mrs. Shin comments ‘A pity your cousin didn’t hear that,’ and goes on ‘What are Mr Shui Ta’s trousers doing here?’ etc., as on p. 73. After Shen Teh’s ‘No’ seven lines further on there is another new passage:
Lin To the carpenter appears in the gateway.
THE CARPENTER: Good morning, Miss Shen Teh. There’s a story going round the district that you have got permission for the homeless to move into Shu Fu the barber’s houses. Is that right?
MRS. SHIN: It was right. But now we’ve given Shu Fu the brushoff there ain’t going to be no accommodation.
THE CARPENTER: That’s a pity. I don’t know what I can do with my family.
MRS. SHIN: It looks as if Miss Shen Teh will be in the happy position of being able to ask you for accommodation. The carpenter goes out, disappointed. There’ll be a lot more of them coming along.
SHEN TEH: This is dreadful.
MRS. SHIN: You think you’re too good for the barber, so the plague huts down by the river are going to have to be good enough for Lin To and his family. If you ask me you’re not giving up that pilot of yours in spite of the bad way he has behaved to you. Don’t you mind him being such a bad person?
SHEN TEH: It all comes from poverty.
Then she addresses the poem to the audience as on pp. 74–5, after which the text continues, with one exception, as we have it until after the plum rhyme that ends her big speech (p. 76). The exception is that the mention of the barber’s cheque is cut; thus after Mrs. Shin’s ‘Let’s only hope it isn’t a little one’ (p. 75) the speaker laughs and continues: ‘Your pilot has fixed you good and proper. Landed you with a kid, that’s what he’s done!’ Then She goes to the rear and so on. But once past the plum rhyme this version is different:
Bertolt Brecht: Mutter Courage und ihre Kinder 6 Page 36