Theatre of War

Theatre of War was at best interesting. This documentary was based on both the life of Bertolt Brecht and the 2006 production of “Mother Courage” by the Public Theatre in New York. Theatre of War gave an extensive timeline of Brecht fleeing Germany as well as an amusing recording of Brecht, once in the United States, being questioned about allegiance with the communist party. The documentary also followed the rehearsals of the Public Theatre’s “Mother Courage” with incredible performance footage of Meryl Streep and Kevin Kline. To me the most moving moments were in comments by Meryl Streep on her role as an actor and on the purpose of “Mother Courage” for today’s audiences.

Director John Walter prefaced this film by saying, “Making a documentary is like spending a year digging yourself into a hole and then spending the next year trying to claw your way back out”. And the audience could feel his clawing. Walter has assembled an incredible amount of information but failed to share any of his own opinion or insight. We were left ask, so what? The most creative response applied the transitive property to this documentary coming to an interesting but explored conclusion. Marxism applies to “Mother Courage”. “Mother Courage” applies to present day politics. Therefore, Marxism should apply to present day politics. When asked point blank about this conclusion, the film makers gave a resounded “No comment”, “I don’t know”, and “Yes!”