Brecht's Mother haggles and battles her way into the future

Certain performances define—and burden—their plays: Marlon Brando's swagger haunts A Streetcar Named Desire; Billie Whitelaw's cadences echo in Beckett's one-acts. Similarly, Helene Weigel has defined the title character of Mother Courage for generations. Anyone staging the travails of this sutler from the Thirty Years' War wrestles with the legacy of Weigel's "silent scream"—when Mother Courage learns that her son, Swiss Cheese, has been shot, she stifles her sorrow to avoid jeopardizing her own life. Ironically, the Classical Theater of Harlem, stumbling elsewhere in the production, leaps over this particular hurdle with subtlety and grace; Gwendolyn Mulamba, as Mother Courage, simply moves her hand to her gut while her torso ever so gently collapses. It works.

Hitch your wagon to a war.
photo: Troy Hourie
Hitch your wagon to a war.

The play's best moments, lamentably sporadic, are those that are quiet and spare, and the company, especially Michael Early as the Chaplain, does manage to breathe spirit into Eric Bentley's often wooden translation. But director Christopher McElroen tends to confuse movement with energy, resulting in a fidgety production that doesn't trust the inherent interest of the material. When Courage explains her children's parenthood, she tugs pointlessly on a soldier's pants—just to set up his line, "Are you pulling my leg?" Video and audio clips referring to American aggression in Iraq, Panama, and elsewhere, along with plot summaries read over TV monitors by a Fox anchor, bludgeon the audience with the play's contemporary relevance. Paul Dessau's music has been jettisoned—not necessarily a crime, but the cheesy synthesizer orchestrations underwhelm. ("The Solomon Song," for example, becomes a piece of '70s funk for no thematic reason.)

 
My Voice Nation Help
0 comments
Sort: Newest | Oldest
 

New York Event Tickets
©2013 Village Voice, LLC, All rights reserved.
Browse Voice Nation
  • Voice Places New York

    Voice Places

    Find everything you're looking for in your city

  • Happy Hour App

    Happy Hour App

    Find the best happy hour deals in your city

  • Daily Deals

    Daily Deals

    Get today's exclusive deals at savings of anywhere from 50-90%

  • Best Of

    Best Of...

    Check out the hottest list of places and things to do around your city