Word: brecht
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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Thomas Mann and Bertolt Brecht were among the most gifted writers of their time. Artist Max Ernst made surrealism accessible to a generation. The architects-in-exile of the Bauhaus, led by Walter Gropius and Mies van der Rohe, changed the face of the American city. Middle European Physicists Albert Einstein, Hans Bethe and Edward Teller became the ambivalent stepfathers of the atomic...
...also a malefactor; in Amphitryon, the great Theban commander rages against an impostor "who wants me . .. out of the fortress of my consciousness." This sense of self as an armed camp is one of many traits that make the playwright seem a contemporary of another great admirer, Bertolt Brecht...
...ideal. The singers perform zestfully, even when Sellars requires the principals to sing lying on the floor, as if they were practicing some new kind of aerobic exercise for the vocal cords. Instead of reinforcing the staging, or indeed placing it in the kind of paradoxical context limned by Brecht and Weill, this straightforward musicality puts the brakes on the rambunctious staging. The rhythms of the songs and the pace of the action are too different, which may be why the single most successful moment of the production is the overture, staged in front of a scrim decorated with...
...underestimates the intricacy of this particular Brechtian work. The HRDC's Mother Courage succeeds on the first levels it incorporates all of the Brechtian techniques of alienation and it leaves the audience feeling detached and thoughtful. However it does not succeed on that more tenuous level of which Brecht would probably disapprove--it is not haunting...
...while avoiding the usual pitfalls, this production falls instead into the Brechtian chasm. Were it any other play by Bertolt Brecht, this director and this cast could have produced something special. One can't fault them for choosing a hard nut to crack, and indeed, the play might shine with some more polishing. In any case, such a talented director and superb cast deserve a look...