Summary
The MTC/National Arts Centre co-production, which opened in Ottawa last month, debuted a new version by Peter Hinton, the NAC's artistic director of English theatre. Without taking any major liberties, he restores the colloquial power of [Bertolt Brecht]'s original script with modern language like "frickin" and "as if," while tightening the focus on the cosy connection between war and business.
Tanja Jacobs doesn't carry the same acting pedigree that Zoe Caldwell conveyed to Winnipeg in 1964, but she meets all the demands -- apart from her plainly average singing -- of a role that is often called the female King Lear. In the brutal scene where Mother Courage pretends not to recognize the dead body of her son, Jacobs' face captures all at once a mother's anguish, pragmatism and resignation.See the full content of this document
Extract
Brecht's Message Still Relevant, If Didactic
This time there weren't five curtain calls greeting the triumphant cast at the conclusion of Bertolt Brecht's Mother Courage and her Children at the Manitoba Theatre Centre.
Unlike the rapt...See the full content of this document
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