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Mother Courage and Her Children
By Bertolt Brecht
Adapted by David Hare
Directed by Elizabeth Carlin-Metz
Produced by Vitalist Theatre of Chicago
At The Theatre Building Chicago
1225 W. Belmont Avenue
Chicago, IL
Call 773-327-5252, tickets $20
Fridays at 8 PM
Saturdays at 2:30 & 8 PM
Sundays at 2:30 PM
Running time is 2 hours, 45 minutes with intermission
Through November 5, 2006
Epic theater deftly displayed in ambitious production
Vitalist Theatre of Chicago has mounted a large scale production of Bertolt Brecht’s (1898-1956) classic anti-war and anti-capitalist play Mother Courage and Her Children. This successful production is effective, engaging and grandiose. Brecht’s masterwork of epic theater was supposed to leave the audience completely detached in an un-emotional manner. Using techniques such as short self-contained scenes introduced with signs and featuring songs with the players in shabby costumes with clownish facial makeup, these “alienation effects” Brecht thought would make his anti-war and anti-business message paramount. What happened in the initial productions in 1941 in Zurich, Switzerland was the direct opposite. The play vividly reminded the audiences of the war currently raging near by. This current production is an effective remounting of a powerful masterwork. Every serious theatre patron needs to see this worthy production.
Base on the Thirty Years War in 1624, we find Mother Courage (Lori Myers) running a canteen wagon in Poland where she sells drinks and clothing to the Swedish soldiers with her three children Eilif (Jeremy Clark), Swiss Cheese (Christopher Hibbard) and Kattrin (Kelly Lynn Hogan). Mother Courage likes profiteering from war but doesn’t want her children participating in it. Her world is contained in the cart and her three kids. Eventually her boys taste war and her daughter becomes a victim of war. She is neutral about war but an aggressive capitalist.
Lori Myers, as Mother Courage, is totally in command of this play with her marvelously wide ranging performance that includes rich acting, terrific comedic timing with effective singing that leads us through the 2 hours and 45 minute epic. She is the steady influence that makes this play so powerful and moving. Lori Myers is in award territory with her stellar performance. She is, indeed, a Mother Courage to cherish.
She didn’t do it alone as evidenced by the energetic work from veteran Vincent L. Lonergan, Rom Barkhorder, Jeremy Clark, Annes Sheridan Smith, Christopher Hibbard and Winston Evans. Fine ensemble work carries the piece.
The set is a marvel featuring wooden and metal scaffolding that reaches to the top of the stage and the cart was created out of an iron bedstead with corrugated metal and wheels to depict the Dadaist influence where motion/stasis=war/domesticity=wh eel/stool=war machine/home. Add various period costumes to hint at continuous warfare together with the Stomp sound effects from the live musicians and this production has unique, epic theater elements that blend together to emphatically land its anti-war and anti-capitalist message. Filled with gallows humor and irreverent, lowbrow theatrics in pure Brechtian style, Mother Courage and Her Children is a fine sampler of the leftist’s work.
Mother Courage is a long and somewhat plodding show that contains some unsteady accents (especially from Winston Evans who goes from Welsh to Irish to American hillbilly) but ultimately it delivers a sort of surreal epic that engages us and delivers a special night of theatre. The energy of the cast, the craftsmanship of the production and the tone of the play is moving. The worthy message comes over loud and clear as Vitalist Theatre of Chicago’s powerful show gets us thinking about the global conflicts that haunt us today.
Recommended
Tom Williams
Tom99@chicagocritic.com for comments
Talk Theatre in Chicago podcast
Date Reviewed: September 11, 2006
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