Rebecca Wahls, Duke Theater Studies’ artist in residence and instructor of theater studies, reconfigured Bertold Brecht’s mid-20th century play “The Good Woman of Setzuan” for the modern day and the Duke stage with “GOOD.”
The reimagined play follows “The Woman” who is approached by three pop-singing Gods as part of their last ditch effort to find a good person. She proves herself to be the last good person in the world and the Gods leave the fate of the world in her hands. However, with goodness come those who leech off of it, and “The Woman” must conjure up a neoliberal solution. She creates an alter-ego, a cousin who is a self-titled “Girl Boss” and rids “The Woman” of all of her many depriving obligations.
Esme Fox (Trinity 2025) played the lead role with fervor and life. Having to carry the majority of the show’s 90 minutes — except for several interstitial parts sung powerfully by “The Gods”: Louise Adillon, Trinity ‘25; Sarah Poinsette, Trinity ‘28; and Sophie Rees, Trinity ‘25 — Fox maintained and consistently raised the energy. The supporting cast consisted of everything from needy landlords to love interests to members of the penitentiary system. Each gave different space for the exploration of the complexity of “The Woman”s mutually exclusive desires to be everything to everyone and to take care of herself financially and emotionally.
Beyond the text and show, “GOOD” was a wonderful example of what Duke Arts, when fully participated in, can be. At “GOOD”s Sheafer Lab Theater showing, the crowd was lively, participative and reactive. In one moment, a potential love interest — a tech-bro with concepts of a plan for a rice-donating app — tells “The Woman” that she should delete an Instagram post that signified their exclusive status. This awful remark was met by genuine, audible gasps from a large portion of the crowd. Any expectation for an audience laugh, scoff or gasp was met with more than could be expected. The joy of the performers was shared and reciprocated by the audience.
In an interview, Rebecca Wahls shared that, on top of sharing such joy with the Duke community, she plans to spread “GOOD” to regional theaters. It’s easy to see the ways that broader culture impacts Duke Arts — Joe Gatto coming to campus or the many international musicians that perform at Baldwin are both examples — but it is arguably more rare and powerful to see Duke Arts having a possible impact outside of Durham.
In this same interview, Wahls explored the project’s themes of femininity and perfection. The beauty of “GOOD” and performances like it is that people can come and get whatever they want from it. Many love seeing their friends acting bombastically or taking themselves less seriously, others come to appreciate the effort of the cast, director, lighting coordinator or sound designer, others still can come to grapple with our current understanding of what it means to be truly helpful.
Does it really help to tear yourself down in the service of others? Is it “good” to let others take advantage of you? Why is it that oftentimes the worst part — the “Girl Boss” — in all of us gets the most tangible results? Where do we go when we are tired? “GOOD” can answer these questions or just provide you with a funny, caring show for an hour on a Saturday evening.
With greater support from all of us, more shows like this can happen to a wider audience, both at Duke and beyond. We can all be the “GOOD” in Duke Arts.
Get The Chronicle straight to your inbox
Sign up for our weekly newsletter. Cancel at any time.
Kadin Purath is a Trinity junior and a culture editor for Recess.