Anyone these days even casually interested in theater news has to be aware of the recent developments with the Classic Stage Company's revival of Bertolt Brecht's Mother Courage and Her Children. Tonya Pinkins playing the title character left director Brian Kulick's production for what are often termed "artistic differences," a phrase frequently serving as a euphemism for a far more volatile state of affairs. Some days later, Kecia Lewis was announced as the replacement.
Now the shebang has opened--with, during the press previews, Lewis holding the script for a sizable part of the proceedings. There's no doubt that Lewis, a large woman with fire in her performing, is a valiant and worthy choice, but as long as she requires the script as she hones her characterization, it's unfair to assess what she'd doing.
It's obvious that when she no longer needs the script--no longer needs, as she does at one point, to keep packing it on the top of containers she's packing in a van--that she'll likely be giving a far more substantive account of the role. It's surely okay to report that she already gives the impression she'll develop into a formidable Mother Courage and certainly continue to deliver the Brecht lyrics (to Duncan Sheik's so-so music) as forcibly as she's already doing.
(Note that, as things stand, the delayed opening, made necessary by the company conflict, occurs five days before the closing. So to some extent, Lewis is offering the CSC a big favor and deserves additional thanks for that. Also note that Jacob Ming-Trent, another cast member, has been replaced in his several roles by understudy Jamil A. Mangan--but not to such publicized recognition.)
Given the unfortunate circumstances and trying to remain aware of how much Lewis's fitting into Kulick's account might be affecting the outcome, there are some responses that can be reported. As has been noised about, Kulick decided to transfer the setting--Brecht's deliberately skewed take on Europe's 17th-century 30 Year's War (1618-1648) for metaphorical purposes--to Africa.
What he's done is switch it to unspecific Africa locales, identified only by a back wall covered with set designer Tony Straiges's curtain of green leaves. (Costume designer Toni-Leslie James has the chaplain played by Michael Potts wearing a brown jacket and a T-shirt announcing "Bolivia.") Aside from then calling for an all African-American cast--a valid idea, to be certain--Kulick hasn't done much more with his conceit. (Was this one of the bones Pinkins picked with him?)
But that's not the only questionable decision Kulicke makes. Truly worse is his removing Mother Courage's symbolic cart. In its place, he's put a jeep with a detachable van. Therefore, gone for the most part is Mother Courage constantly pulling her cart as if she's transporting all the world's woes behind her as she attempts to profit from war and simultaneously keep her sons (Deandre Sevon, Curtiss Cooke, Jr.) and speaking-impaired daughter Kattrin (Mirirai Sithole) alive and safe. And although the director eventually honors the image, its absence for most of the two acts represents an irreparable loss.
As for the other actors, Sithole, who looks like a twig shivering in a strong winter wind, gives a lovely performance, even though when, late in the play as she's banging on a percussive instrument to alert villagers about encroaching marauders, Kulick positions her where a good part of the patrons can't see her. Potts is also faring well, especially during the speeches when he argues that war is more preferable to peace for humankind.
Let's just say that everyone connected with the production may have been operating under the best intentions but that good intentions don't always lead to the best results. This is one of the times that they don't.