IRONDALE ENSEMBLE PROJECTNEWSNEWS Fall 1997 Special “Brecht” Edition Volume 1 No. 2 MMARXARX MMEETSEETS MMARXARX ININ MMOTHEROTHER OFOF AA PPLALAYY The Mother Notes Toward A Program A Brecht-Free Environment by Brian Johnstone aspect of this admirable lehrstÜcke - by Terry Greiss French or another of the major play or parable. For like a secular saint's publishing houses. However when we Brian Johnstone is a professor at play, THE MOTHER is a parable, In 1985, we found ourselves tried to re-secure the rights a few Carnegie Mellon University and the close to such Christian parallels as involved in a series of frustrating months later, in an attempt to bring foremost scholar of Ibsen. He is the the similar earthy The Pilgrim's phone calls and meetings with the back the production in repertory, we author of a book “The Ibsen Cycle”. Progress: it dramatizes the moment of estate of Bertolt Brecht over the rights were turned down flat. No explanation THE MOTHER (1932) is a dramatic 'revelation' that comes to Pelegea, to perform his play Galileo. Because was given, other than, " The Brecht parable. It sets out the stages of then the suffering, vilification and mis- this anecdote may have some ironic people don't want the play done". Pelagea Vlassova's quest for libera- Refusing to accept this as the definitive tion: the liberation of her own identity answer, I asked how I might speak per- through her service to the cause - or sonally to the Brecht People, for if they faith - to material forces of an oppres- only knew what good work we were sive capitalist system and the habits doing and how well we represented of ignorance and unthinking collusion Brecht's legacy to New York City, sure- within us that maintain this system in ly they would change their minds. power over our lives. Pelagea's exem- It turned out that the People was a plary project of enlightened action and person. The Brecht Person, Stefan self- realization can never be complet- Brecht, (son of Bertolt), was represent- ed, for its process, a praxis that con- ed by People, an office of lawyers. tinually must change with new circum- Jerrold Couture, the lawyer for stances and new challenges. This Stefan Brecht, and I got to know each means that her dramatic identity com- other quite well during the following bines resolute determination with an month. After turning down my request instinctive flexibility and adaptability. verbally, over the telephone, I asked if Pelagea so easily could have been Irondale might make a written propos- insufferably self-righteous, dogmatic, al to Mr. Brecht The proposal was exuding philistine "peasant shrewd- focused around the three major ideas, ness" to confound effete intellectuals. which I thought were great selling Instead we see her learning through points: Irondale was a permanent devastation: we follow her eruptions ensemble and could therefore do jus- of outrage, her sympathetic under- understanding that, like any saint, she connections to our current project, I am tice to the work because of the extend- standing of the limitations of others, must undergo on behalf of her faith happy to relate it here, as I have at so ed amount of development time we together with her unembarassment at during her path to a difficult salvation. many dinner parties since that time. had to spend on it; we were introduc- lying, being devious, disingenuous, Pelegea can even absorb her son's We had performed Galileo earlier ing new audiences to Brecht's work by unscrupulous, when it is manifestly loss within the larger purpose which that same year for 4 weeks. We were presenting free matinees to NYC high the best tactic of the moment. Rather now consumes her life. Like all an unknown company, in an unknown school students; and, the possibility than an ideological cipher she is a drama, the play is concerned less to theater. There was little chance of that we would tour the play after its multi-dimensional character. convert the unbeliever than to having the play reviewed, much less New York run. A week later I received The process by which Brecht sets strengthen, make subtle and illumi- making any money at the box office so a phone call from Mr. Couture: "Stefan out the stages of this evolution of her nate the devotion of the ranks of the we had no trouble at all securing the was very impressed with your propos- character and gets the audience to faithful. rights to perform the play. I think we al," he said. "Especially the part about collude in it is not the least wonderful Continued on page 2 purchased them through Samuel Continued on page 2 RONDALE Non Profit I Organization Ensemble Project U.S. Postage Paid P.O. Box 1314; Old Chelsea Station New York, NY New York, New York 10011 5443 www.irondale.org Theater for the New City 155 First Avenue (Between 9th & 10th Streets) November 19 - December 20 Call for Reservations: (212) 633 1292 Wednesday - Saturdays, 8 PM Tickets: $15.00 $10.00 for students/seniors/Passports to Off Broadway TDF accepted Cont. from Page 1 - The Mother... twisted humor of the situation) thereby Cont. from Page 1 - A Brecht Free Environment week run. The play opened with a re- By eliminating subjective psycholo- understanding even better the seduc- bringing the kids to see Brecht and enactment of the phone call between gy, that vaguely indicated 'inward- tions of power to guard against. creating new audiences for his work. me and Jerry Couture, (I got to play ness' of bourgeois theatre, Brecht can Such a scene - and there are many He would like to see the production Jerry), and then I told the audience: reveal the subtlety and complexity of like it in THE MOTHER - is typical of though, before he makes a decision." "So we cannot do Galileo objectively observed, sociological Brecht's subtlety: where he might We had to perform the play for him and tonight,because we are forbidden to characterization. These choices of have presented a merely stereotypical then he would decide whether or not do so by the Brecht Estate. We did elimination are as effective as remov- character and action, instead he we could perform it for anyone else. rehearse the play for a long time how- ing three-dimensionality, chiaroscuro makes the dramatic situation as inter- (My continued reminders to Mr. ever. If we could've performed Galileo, and perspective from modern paint- esting, as multilayered, as any 'psy- Couture that we had already done it it would have looked a lot like this...." ing. Identities and the relationships chological' realism. Another example once, just a few months ago, seemed And we performed Galileo. between them, are suddenly revealed is the teacher Vessovchikov's evolu- to have no bearing on this at all. That I am amazed sometimes, by the in their naked essentiality as social tion from his scornful intellectual alien- was then, this is now.) adversarial relationships that Irondale and economic elements and forces. ation to his gradual reluctant commit- So we rented the theater for a night, finds itself in, with organizations and Brecht directs our attention to the ment to the cause. Scene 7, where rented the costumes, rigged some people who represent the causes objective nature of the situations Pelegea visits her son in prison, is a makeshift lights and invited an audi- which we sincerely believe. faced by his heroine: what are the little masterpiece of theatrical dialec- ence so Stefan wouldn't be lonely. He We are staunch believers in the right and wrong choices facing her tics. Under the eyes of the watchful arrived, clicked his heels in greeting, honor and necessity of unions -- yet and how will she respond to them? guard, she plays the role of unenlight- and the show began. After Act One we find ourselves the "bad boy" of our When the audience finds itself ened mother, lamenting her passively Stefan left. As he was heading for the own union, Actors' Equity Association, assenting to the choice Pelegea hopeless condition and reproaching door, Mr. Couture, (now Jerry to me) more often than not. We are a com- makes, the situation is grasped in its her son. Not only does this have the assured me, "he loved it. Loved it . pany that considers Brecht to be its practical result of gain- Call me the middle of ing the names: it next week and I'll have demonstrates to the an answer for you. " audience the path Since he did not tell us Pelegea has actually that we couldn't finish traveled since the the play that evening, beginning of the play, we did. from the impotent 'trag- The other invited ic' mother figure of con- guests stayed. ventional lore to the rev- "Hello, Terry? This is olutionary who can us Jerry Couture speak- her resources of native ing." cunning for the cause. "Hi, Jerry. How are Pelegea virtually you?" becomes two charac- "Fine." ters on-stage at the "Good." same time: the revolu- "I just want to tell you tionary mother and the once again, how much pre-revolutionary one Stefan liked the produc- she is parodying and tion." has left far behind. "I'm glad. It would One of the unstated have been great for him messages of the play is to have seen the whole that qualities in Pelagea thing," that could only be reac- "Yes...well, he was tionary and destructive very sorry. He had when used for unen- another engagement lightened purposes: her that evening." cunning, her capacity "I understand.