| MOTHER COURAGE AND HER CHILDREN |
2006 | Directed by George C. Wolfe |
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By Bertolt Brecht, translated by Tony Kushner
In Brecht’s seminal work we follow Mother Courage over a period of 12 years as one by one her children Kattrin, Eilif and Swiss Cheese are taken away by a vicious war. As Mother Courage seeks to profit from the war that is killing her children, she questions the roles of honesty, virtue and family in the face of a bitter struggle for survival.
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| ADDITIONAL CAST & CHARACTERS |
Meryl Streep
Kevin Kline
Alexandria Wailes
Frederick Weller
Austin Pendleton |
... Mother Courage
... Cook
... Kattrin
... Eilif
... Chaplain |
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'Mother Courage' and Streep
USA Today | August 22, 2006
It's a given that there's nothing Meryl Streep can't do in front of a camera or a live audience.
But every so often, a part comes along that truly accommodates, and challenges, her great and varied gifts: the unaffected intelligence and lack of vanity, the razor-sharp timing and playful wit, the profound empathy for all manner of human experience.
Such a plum is the title role of Mother Courage and Her Children, Bertolt Brecht's timeless study of the brutality and futility of war through the journey of one tragic, remarkable woman.
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Meryl's Courage
Newark Star Ledger | August 22, 2006 | Michael Summers
It's a tribute to Streep's rep as a great actress that people are camping overnight to grab free tickets to the Public Theater's earnest, energetic production, which opened last night in the outdoor Delacorte Theater.
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March On, Meryl Streep!
The New York Sun | August 22, 2006 | Eric Grode
"Mother Courage and Her Children," currently attracting daily hordes of ticket-seeking fans to Central Park, is indisputably an event. It is also a ramshackle, stomping gloss on Bertolt Brecht's 1949 anti-war masterwork, albeit one sprinkled with the occasional flash of stage poetry. It is a brainstorming session trying to pass itself off as a thoughtful production. It is, put simply, a damn mess and a damn shame.
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In 'Courage,' Streep braves ill-fitting role
New York Daily News | August 22, 2006 | By Joe Dziemianowicz
Streep's performance as the iconic "battlefield hyena" (as Mother Courage is called) is gutsy, but a bit of a letdown. Brecht's lack of subtlety runs counter to her strengths. Instead of the deeply nuanced portraits Streep is famous for, and that we've come to empathize with, there is lots of long-winded talk and surface tics.
Streep speaks in a gruff voice, like she's swallowed grit. Courage constantly swipes her hand under her nose - a strange nervous habit, as if she's inhaled too much misery. And she punctuates her sentences with a machine-gun burst of laughter, seemingly taking that "hyena" description to heart.
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Amazing Streep and Kline make 'Mother Courage' worth the time
The Baltimore Sun | August 14, 2006 | By Liz Smith
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Meryl is onstage for most of the evening, doing impossible things, having memorized millions of words and phrases and moves and takes and leers and frowns and groans and tears. This is bravura acting at its best! We are privileged to see the re-creation of this Brecht masterpiece.
People may have left during the first night but on the second night, I noted only one pair of deserted seats at the intermission. (Outside, eager New Yorkers were jumping up and down, begging for "tickets ... just one; have you got one?") This incredible presentation of the Bertolt Brecht drama by the Public Theater called on many giant talents. Tony Kushner did the translation and it's crisp, profane and profound. The director, the estimable George C. Wolfe, has made a miracle; I can't imagine how he wheeled an enormous cast of what looks like hundreds of soldiers, camp followers and derelicts around Riccardo Hernandez's rusting, bashed-up set and kept the pace so fast and furious.
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Waiting for ‘Mother Courage’
The New York Times | August 17, 2006 | By Lawrence van Gelder
Since Bertolt Brecht’s “Mother Courage and Her Children,” starring Meryl Streep and Kevin
Kline, began performances on Aug. 8 at the Delacorte Theater in Central Park, lines have begun
forming the night before for free tickets, which are distributed on the day of the performance,
beginning at 1 p.m. On Tuesday night the first hopeful turned up at 9:30, said a spokesman for
Shakespeare in the Park, presented by the Public Theater; more often, ticket seekers begin to
appear around midnight in the park and at the Public Theater on Astor Place, where tickets are
also available. And with the show playing to capacity (1,880), a standby line gathers at the
theater at show time in case of cancellations.
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Worth the Wait: Playbill Visits the Queue for Mother Courage Tickets
Playbill.com | August 8, 2006 | By Alex Corpora
The hot ticket of the moment in Manhattan is the new Public Theater production of Bertolt Brecht's
Mother Courage and Her Children, boasting a Who's Who of contemporary theatre.
Meryl Streep and Kevin Kline are among its players, Pulitzer Prize winner Tony Kushner (Angels in America) penned the world premiere translation of Brecht's 1941 play, Tony Award nominee Jeanine Tesori (Thoroughly Modern Millie, Caroline, or Change) wrote the new music, and George C. Wolfe (Angels in America, Bring in 'da Noise, Bring in 'da Funk) directs.
To avoid chaos when seeking the famously free tickets for the summer Shakespeare in the Park productions at the Delacorte Theater in Central Park,
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© Alex Corpora |
The Public puts people in their place — in line. The two primary locations for
first-come, first-served tickets are the Delacorte itself, or downtown at The
Public Theater box office on 425 Lafayette St. Hours for both locations on the day of performance are 1-3 PM. (There are also tickets available on specific dates in other boroughs. Click here.)
In the hours leading up to the Aug. 8 first preview of Mother Courage, Playbill.com visited the line at the flagship Public Theater to mingle with the hopeful ticket seekers.
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N.Y. Crowds Line Up to See Streep, Kline
FORBES | August 8, 2006 | By Verena Dobnik
'Tis the summer of Streep. With Meryl Streep's huge success in the movie "The Devil Wears Prada," crowds began lining up in Central Park before dawn Tuesday to nab free tickets to see Streep and Kevin Kline in the play "Mother Courage and Her Children."
Just after 1 p.m., when the box office first started distributing tickets, nearly 2,000 were gone. The last ticket went to a fan who got in line at 9:15 a.m. - for an 8 p.m. curtain at the park's Delacorte Theater.
Hundreds of people walked away empty-handed into the Manhattan sun. And 50 others left with vouchers for a possible pair of tickets each in place of last-minute no-shows.
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Public Theater: Mother Courage Detail Page
Official information on the play, watch this place for upcoming news
