Filmmaker John Walter artfully captures Meryl Streep groping for – and then seizing – the character in her unforgettable portrayal of Mother Courage in Tony Kushner’s adaptation of the Bertolt Brecht masterpiece Mother Courage and Her Children, which was presented by The Public Theater/NY Shakespeare Festival in Central Park in the summer of 2006. As Manohla Dargis in the Times observed, “filmmaker John Walter jumps from art to history and politics and back again, from the theater of the streets to the theater of the stage, without pause. That makes the movie… tough to summarize, which is part of its appeal.” Though this film could easily have been crafted into a star vehicle for Streep and Kevin Kline, Walter instead digs deeply into Brecht’s motives and politics, unearthing the playwright’s famed and famously clever testimony before the House Un-American Activities Committee – the day after which he fled from the United States. THEATER OF WAR is about theater and war, capitalism and Marxism, the postwar anti-Communist hysteria of the 1950s, and one literary genius’s ability to make art from them all.
Theater of War Product Information
Grade Level: Grades 10-12, College and University
Subjects: Culture, Arts
Language: English
Copyright: ©
2008 White Buffalo Entertainment. All Rights Reserved.
Set: DVD Only
Total Running Time: 95 minutes
ISBN-10: TBA
Educational Prices:
Educational with Public Performance Rights: $249.00
Educational without Public Performance Rights: $129.00
To Pre-Order this title please contact info@alivemindeducation.com or call us at 212-398-3112.
For public exhibition inquiries please contact us for more details!
Additional Information
- Video Clips - Coming Soon!
- Full Reviews - Coming Soon!
- Director’s Interview - Coming Soon!
- Credits - Coming Soon!
Reviews
“For those interested in the continuing relevance of theater in a society dominated by
momentary electronic impulses, in the responsibility of artists in wartime and in the
greatest anti-capitalist, anti-government, antiwar and anti-romantic playwright of the 20th
century, Walter’s cool, capable, stimulating exploration is a must.”
-Salon.com
“In his inspired, inspiring essayistic documentary Theater of War, [John
Walter] jumps from art to history and politics and back again, from the theater of the
streets to the theater of the stage, without pause. That makes the movie, which follows a
Public Theater production in Central Park of Bertolt Brecht’s epic play Mother Courage
and Her Children, tough to summarize, which is part of its appeal”
-The New York Times
“…living philosophy…What is the value of art in times of strife? Should people be sitting in the theater or rioting in the streets? Walter’s film reminds us that once there was a man whose work made no distinction between the two.”
-Boston Globe
“If you’re interested in world theater or the work ethic of arguably the greatest actor of her generation, see Theater of War…. a must-see event for theater-lovers and Streep watchers alike. Don’t miss it.”
-Boston Herald
“THEATER OF WAR is more than a backstage pass. It’s an engrossing and fiercely
intelligent look at war and capitalism, and their regrettable dependence on one another.
But even more, it’s about the power—if not responsibility—of art and artists to cast a
light on that which we prefer not to see.”
-Sky Sitney
In 1949, Bertolt Brecht, one of the most accomplished playwrights of the 20th century, was invited to East Berlin to stage one of his plays. Brecht had left Germany in 1933 and lived in several European countries before finally settling in the United States in 1941. He continued to write plays, even though he did not know if he would live to see his plays performed for German audiences ever again, and also worked as a screenwriter. He left the U.S. the day after he was compelled to testify at a House Un-American Activities Committee hearing on Communism in the motion picture industry. His first production in postwar Germany was Mutter Courage und Ihre Kinder (Mother Courage and her Children), starring his wife Helene Weigel. Set during the Thirty Years War, the play had obvious echoes for a German audience that had just endured World War II. In 2006, as the U.S. fought in Iraq, the Public Theatre in New York City commissioned a new English adaptation of Brecht’s play by Tony Kushner for a production starring Meryl Streep and Kevin Kline.
Theater of War shows scenes in rehearsal from the production and interviews Streep, Kushner, and other involved in it. Their thoughts on Brecht and the meaning of the play are supplemented by recollections of Carl Weber, a Stanford University professor who worked as an assistant director to Brecht, and Brecht’s daughter Barbara. We also get to hear from Brecht himself, in audio clips as he directs one of his plays, and in film of his testimony before HUAC. Weber says in the video that Brecht’s testimony can be seen as a Brechtian comedy. Pretending not to be fluent in English (although he was), Brecht’s performance during the testimony shows what a good actor he was, Weber says.
Brecht is famous for his concept of “epic theatre,” where the actors step outside the character to comment on the action of the play as they perform it. As is mentioned in the video, Brecht wanted audiences to have an emotional reaction and think at the same time. The scenes from the play shown in the video and the commentary demonstrate this. It makes one wish the entire production had been recorded and released for viewing. But the video does give us a taste of it, and is recommended for all colleges and universities with theater programs and larger public libraries.
-Educational Media Reviews Online
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