The Cavalier daily :: Wednesday, October 29, 1969 :: University of Virginia Library

It is quite probable that the
Virginia Players chose Bertolt
Brecht's "Mother Courage and
Her Children" as its first offering
of the season because of the play's
relevance to today. There is no
single topic of greater importance
in America right now than the war
being fought in Vietnam. Its
validity is being questioned everywhere,
especially on college campuses.
And since "Mother Courage"
deals with attitudes toward
war and the profits and losses war
simultaneously brings to those
caught up in it, a current production
of the play should take on an
added dimension .

"Mother Courage" is a play of
contradictions. Set against the
Thirty Years' War, it shows us one
woman's fight for survival. Mother
Courage lives off the war, pulling
a canteen wagon from camp to
camp, from battle to battle. The
war costs her the lives of her three
children. She alternately curses it
and thanks God for it; still, she
accepts it as a way of life. She
needs it for she knows no other
means of survival.

There are inherent failings in
the play. It is more of a narrative
than a drama. Although this is one
of the concepts of epic theater, I
can not help but feel that the
characters suffer as a result. They
are presented in episodes and, in
many cases, their development is
unavoidably minimal. Mother
Courage's feelings toward war are
no clearer (or no different) at the
play's end than after the first
scene. I am of the opinion (and
this is purely subjective, mind
you) that such treatment of
characters and situation, which is
representative of the epic movement,
defies (and often defeats)
the purpose of theater.

While much of the narrative is
compelling, much of it is humdrum.
This is particularly true in
the play's middle scenes. The
dramatic moments that do occur
are at least partially deleted due
to the fact that at the beginning
of each scene we are told what
happens in that scene. "Mother
Courage" does, however, say a
great deal about human values and
objectives. It also offers an imaginative
director a wide range of
expression, as can be witnessed by
the production that Paul Kuritz
has mounted in Minor Hall.

Mr. Kuritz has, so it seems,
tried to create a cabaret atmosphere.
To achieve this, he has
introduced into the play a master
of ceremonies (a device which was
used previously in "Threepenny
Opera" and "Cabaret") who appears
at the beginning of each
scene to obligingly tell us too
much about what is to take place.
Whatever aura of a cabaret Mr.
Kuritz succeeds in capturing is
immediately lost and forgotten
when the white-faced master of
revels leaves the stage. There has
certainly been no attempt to
extend this aura into the episodes
themselves. In fact, every other
aspect of the production deemphasizes
the cabaret atmosphere,
especially Bruce Miller's
well-designed sets. Thus, an inconsistency
of mood exists even
though it does not prevail.

Mr. Kuritz' other major directorial
innovation is that of having
many of the songs and speeches
delivered out of character on a
short runway. This works to good
effect when the script allows such
departures from the play's action.
Too many times, though, it
doesn't. For instance, one character
will tell another that he
knows a song of particular relevance
to the subject at hand. Then
he steps out of the play and sings
the song, not to the character for
whose benefit it is being sung, but
to us, the audience. As a result,
awkwardness offsets creativity.

Where Mr. Kuritz has made his
fatal error is in not cutting some
of the aforementioned humdrum
narrative out of the play. As
things stand, it is a consciously
long evening of theatre. There was
a detectable and justifiable restlessness
in Monday night's audience
between scenes four and ten,
which is to say, during the
weakest part of the play. I doubt
if Mr. Kuritz could remedy the
situation completely, but he could
certainly drop some of the songs
to great advantage.

Unbalanced Cast

Even so, he would still be left
with one of the most unbalanced
casts I've had the displeasure of
seeing in many a month. There is
little variation of voice and
mannerisms in Jettie Paschall's
portrayal of Mother Courage. She
delivers most every line the same
way. Putting her hands on her
hips and rolling her belly like a
department store Santa Claus, her
performance comes closer to
being an impersonation of Marie
Dressler than an interpretation of
a woman torn between two
emotions. There are moments,
fleeting though they may be, in
which she gives rise to these
emotions, when she brings the
character to life with her piercing,
searching eyes. When the body of
her younger son is brought before
her for identification and she
must for safety's sake pretend not
to know him, she succeeds in
capturing the conflicting intricacies
of Mother Courage's state of
being. Her unspoken agony is
beautifully depicted. Yet within a
minute a new scene has begun and
Miss Paschall has returned to her
Tugboat Annie style.

The evening does, however,
yield some performances worthy
of much commendation. Foremost
among these is Patrick Stoner's
exceptional portrayal of
Eif, Mother Courage's older son.
Always snickering at we know not
what, he has a face that's just
asking to be punched, like that of
a conceited madman. Tension
mounts with every line he speaks
because we know that the dynamite
within him is about to
explode. Dee Ann Wolfe also does
extremely well in the difficult role
of his mute sister, conveying the
helplessness of the character
through vivid facial expression.
Eric Singerman and F. Guthrie
Gordon likewise make the most of
their opportunities, especially the
comic ones, as the Cook and the
Chaplain.

Ambitious Undertaking

As Yvette the whore, Lisi
Skls is plausible, as is Peter
Webb as the master of ceremonies.
In the opening scene. I admired
John James' recruiting officer and
James Settle's Sergeant who
damns peace with a voice that is a
duplicate for George Wallace's.
Steve Samusson as Mother Courage's
younger son and Griffin
Smith, appearing in one scene as
an irate soldier, fail to be
convincing.

It is obvious that this production
of "Mother Courage" represents
an ambitious undertaking on
the part of Mr. Kuritz and
company, and the fact that their
efforts fail short is no discredit to
them. It's just that the passing
moments of theatrical stimulation
do not add up to a total evening.