Mother Courage and Her Children. Adaptation: David Hare. Director: Mark Liermann.

Ensemble: The University Theatre, Western Michigan University. Theatre: Laura V. Shaw Theatre. Kalamazoo, MI. Premiere: March 26^th, 2009. Reviewed: April 2, 2009.

Eric Bentley, in an introduction to the play, once posed the question “Who is Mother Courage?” to which he concluded she is, above all, a character defined by dialectical contradictions. The primary contradiction that defines her is between the necessity of egoistic survival and the human instinct to exist socially, to cooperate, to love - what Freud called the antagonism between ‘ego-instincts’ and ‘object instincts.’

Brecht makes this contradiction evident with the symbols that drive Mother Courage and pull her in antagonistic directions. That is, he demonstrates this contradiction with Mother Courage’s cart on the one hand and her children on the other. The cart, of course, represents egoistic survival, a means of subsistence while her children represent social existence, community. It is no secret that Brecht could be very demanding of actors and writing a character like Mother Courage who exhibits both parts of this dialectical antagonism balanced so exactingly testifies to that. Expressing this contradiction as Brecht wrote it is no easy task. So it isn’t surprising that the performance of Mother Courage played by Crystal Lucas-Perry in the University Theatre troupe at Western Michigan University was a bit askew. Still, the production under the direction of Mark Liermann was a success which left the audience in a cacophony of emotion - shock, bewilderment, contemplative reflection, dismay and through enjoyment. “If Brechtian theater is to make you think then we achieved what we wanted,” said Liermann of the production.

Although it was admittedly disappointing that the contradiction of Mother Courage didn’t come out as cleanly as it could have, the production was more than redeemed with its faithfulness to Brecht’s ideas of epic theatre. Staying true to Brecht was very difficult explained Liermann because, “a lot of Brechtian elements don’t work as Brechtian elements anymore.” Consequently, Liermann found himself having to get innovative in his approach. The result was the incorporation of a video game designed specifically for the show by game and digital media designer, Kevin Abbott, which featured the cast as video characters. The game which included, among other things, bombing raids and the torture of Swiss Cheese was projected against a scrim at the back of the stage. This created a surrealistic aura that served to remind the audience that they were watching something contrived and linked them to a part of the daily existence of most of the collage audience - video games.

While Crystal Lucas-Perry was unable to express the contradiction of Mother Courage her poignant rendition of “The Great Capitulation” was wildly spirited and yet genuinely articulated the great tragedy of bourgeois life it was meant to. Sung to an original score written by the production’s musical director, Adam Schumaker and accompanied by a four-piece band with a pop-punk sound, the music had a viciousness and confrontational attitude that worked well with the overall instructive tone of the play. It rocked the audience from their equilibrium, forcing them to not only see what was in front of them but to be aware of it, to confront it, to internalize it - as one should with Brecht.

However, by and large, the show’s acting did not aspire to an elevated standard. It was, in general, disastrously unmoving and had the tendency to fall into kitschy caricatures that were as trite as they were neophytic. The bright exception to this was the role of Kattrin played by Kim Krane who established a fine balance between the passive mute who, for the first ten, scenes was prisoner of her own inabilities and the defiant heroine drumming on the rooftop. Krane created a Kattrin who was both the marginalized and the empowered. “If Kattrin could talk she would be sassy,” said Krane, describing her approach to the character. Krane’s portrayal of Kattrin as a feisty and reluctantly brazen, young women played out especially well in the rooftop scene. When asked about having to play such a renowned scene Krane responded which a composure and professionalism beyond her actual experience, “It doesn’t become playing the scene that is so famous,” said Krane. “Its about beating the drum so the town will wake up.” With her sassiness, Krane has brought new life into a scene which is so familiar the expectations of the audience could easily dictate its carrying out.

Perhaps the greatest elements of the play, however, were the set and costume designs. Together, costume designer, Denise Dietrich and set designer, Doss Teagan Freel used their skills to craft brilliantly complementary styles that formed an intertwined web of three-dimensional space, like a balletic pas de deux, a combination, an infusion of futurism, functionalism and pure art. Together these elements created a pounding, gloomy, destructed, chaotic and yet minimal aesthetic which served as a perfect canvas to project the words, actions, gestures, themes and meanings of the cast. The reason they worked so well was they were able to envelope the cast in a specific and defined place, to ground them in it. However, although they were limited by the confines of the stages, the sets maintained an openness and suggested an impermanence of existence formed by the demolition of war. The costumes, which were similarly war-torn, allowed the cast to blend into the sets, when appropriate: but, the open space of the sets permitted them to emerge from it, illustratively. This reinforced the notion that the road to universal emancipation is transverse by the vehicle of a Marxian epistemology. That is, it implied, in a very Brechtian way, the possibility of a transcendence from the given reality, a breaking through from bourgeois truth as it were. Although Freel and Dietrich are students, these two individuals have demonstrated a great deal of adroitness and creativity and should be looked out for in the future.

Overall, The University Theatre’s production was not without its rough, if not fraying edges. However, it did accomplish, with considerable deft, some of the most difficult things asked of them by Brecht. Not the least of these accomplishments was staying true to his conceptions of epic theatre - regardless of the amount of novelty that was needed to do so. This troupe has captured Brecht is his essential element. It has captured Brecht as artist and social philosopher, as playwright and Marxian praxis-theorist and should be lauded for their effort. Furthermore, it has done so with a jarring, inventive, inspired aesthetic that has reminded us, as Liermann puts it, “no matter what, it is one of the greatest anti-war pieces ever.”

Anthony Squiers is a writer and literary critic. His debut novel, Madness and Insanity will be released late in 2009. Anthony is also pursuing a Ph.D. in political theory from Western Michigan University. His research interest is in the social/political thought of Bertolt Brecht.