Oracle’s THE MOTHER Is The Pinnacle Of Immersive Theater
If you ever wanted to experience immersive theatre at its finest then Oracle Theatre’s new production of Bertolt Brecht’s The Mother is a must see. Based on Maxim Gorky’s 1906 novel Mother which was first staged in 1932, this new re-telling is expertly directed by Max Truax and mixes performance art with musical theatre. The end result is a stirring look at the lengths a mother will go to protect her son.
The Mother takes place on the cusp of the Bolshevik Revolution with underground propaganda being the catalyst for the reformers to bring about a regime change. We are first introduced to Pelagea Vlassova (the sensational Katherine Keberlein) as a normal stay at home mother focused on domesticity (she loves soup). Her son Pavel (the transfixing Rick Foresee), however, is a believer and is tasked with giving informational flyers to the factory workers to join the movement. Knowing her son is in imminent danger, Pelagea takes her son’s place and the story moves from a maternal melodrama, to a very dark version of Norma Rae, with a much bloodier ending.
The Oracle space has been turned into a realistic workhouse (smartly designed by Ben Fuchsen) with five elongated tables that allow the amazing actors to work on three levels; the table tops, the main floor and underneath the structures. Dark grey and brown costumes add to the cold, harsh reality of pending death these civilians were facing. Jonathan Guillen’s music is sullen and repetitive as is the movement of the actors, which is choreographed with silted and precise movement direction by Lyndsay Rose Kane.
Whatever your feelings on the relevancy of Brecht, or if you have been unmoved by his work in the past, The Mother will surely give you a new perspective on his gritty prospective of the human condition.
The Mother plays through May 25, 2013 at The Oracle Theatre, 3809 N. Broadway, Chicago. Performances are Fridays, Saturdays, Mondays at 8pm; Sundays at 7pm. Tickets are free and available through publicaccesstheatre.org. For calendar listings visit theatreinchicago.com
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Show Information:
cast
Katherine Keberlein |
…………… |
Palagea Vlassova (the mother of Pavel) |
Rick Foresee |
…………… |
Pavel Vlassov |
Stephanie Polt* |
…………… |
Masha |
Havalah Grace |
…………… |
Ivan |
Jamie Bragg* |
…………… |
Anton |
Cody Proctor |
…………… |
The Teacher (brother of Ivan) |
Zachary Baker-Salmon |
…………… |
Karpov, The Butcher |
Sarah Pretz* |
…………… |
The Police, A Worker, The Butcher’s Wife, The Landlady |
Yael Wartens |
…………… |
A Worker, The Housemaid |
Eli Branson |
…………… |
A Worker, Smilgin, Sostakovich |
DeChantel Kosmatka |
…………… |
The Commissioner |
production team
Playwright | Bertolt Brecht |
Translator | Steve Gooch |
Director | Max Truax* |
Composer | Jonathan Guillen |
Music Director | Nicholas Tonozzi |
Music Arranged by | Nicholas Tonozzi & Jonathan Guillen |
Assistant Director | Laura K. Smith* |
Set Design | Eleanor Kahn |
Lighting Design | Eric Van Tassell |
Costume Design | Joan Pritchard* |
Video Design | Jeremy Clark* |
Sound Design | Ben Fuchsen* |
Properties Design | Brad Jayhan-Little* |
Beer Design (See Below) | Justin Snyder |
Production Manager | Kathleen Dickinson |
Stage Manager | Allison Goetzman |
Technical Director | Justin Snyder |
Movement Director | Lyndsay Rose Kane |
Casting Director | Lyndsay Rose Kane |
Graphic Design | Evelyn DeHais |
Producer | Tony Santiago |
Carpenters | Justin Snyder, Adam Clark, Ben Fuchsen*, Max Truax*, Marty Green |
Projectionist | Ben Fuchsen* |
Assistant Lighting Designer | David Boren* |
Executive Producer | Ben Fuchsen* |
Executive Director | Brad Jayhan-Little* |
Artistic Director | Max Truax* |
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