The Good Plot Devices of Szechuan

Hello! This is Sophie the Intern here to tell you about Woman's Will's currrent show, "The Good Person of Szechuan." We're already about halfway through the rehearsal process...suffice it to say, I'm waaayyy behind on the blogging.
So allow me a moment to get caught up.
"The Good Person of Szechuan" begins with a scene that one might expect to see at the end of most plays, and the happy end of most plays at that. In the opening scene we see three gods coming through the gates of the city of Szechuan, trying to find lodging for the night. Needless to say, most of the people in Szechuan toss them out on their godly rear ends. But finally, they find someone willing to put them up for the night--Shen Te the prostitute. Satisfied that they have managed to find a Good Person, the Gods give Shen Te a thousand silver dollars (which, at the time, was big money) and off they go. Shen Te uses the money to take over the lease on a tobacco shop. Usually, in situations like that, the protagonist lives happily ever after. No such luck for Shen Te, however. As soon as the town gets wind of Shen Te's good fortune, all her casual aquaintances come out of the woodwork, palms outstreched; her first landlords, the woman who formerly owned the shop, and the homeless guy who hangs out in front of the shop, just to name a few. And Shen Te is so soft-hearted that she can't say no to any of them. To make matters worse, Shen Te falls in love with a penniless deadbeat named Sun. In fact, things get so bad that Shen Te dresses up as a man and claims to be Shen Te's cousin Shui Ta. Shui Ta is everything Shen Te is not. He's tough, ruthless, and excels as a businessman. He has as many successes as Shen Te has failures. As the protagonist goes back and forth between kind-hearted Shen Te and hard-ass Shui Ta, hilarity, and some not-so-hilarious situations ensue. It's darkly hilarious and hilariously dark.
There's just one thing. One of my jobs as intern is to make a study guide. I'm supposed to include the themes of the play on the study guide. Themes that a seven year old could understand. No, I'm not exaggerating; people from the company are going to be teaching a class about this to kids so there is a good chance that seven-year-olds will actually be reading this thing. What themes am I supposed to include on this study guide, exactly? Prostitution? How even your gods will abandon you in the face of Capitalism? How it is impossible to be good to yourself and others at the same time? Szechuan, we have a problem.
However, the play itsself is lovely, as are the actors and director and pretty much everyone involved. I'll tell you more about all of them in the next entry.