Courageous Indeed

I can't believe I was warned by multiple people that Mother Courage in the Park was boring and long-winded. We just got back and I'm so blown away I've gotta get this down on "paper".

Oskar Eustis is running away with the "My Favorite New Artistic Director in NYC" award. Maybe it's because of the war in Iraq, maybe it's because of the war against terrorism, maybe it's the war between Israel and Lebanon..and the Palestinians...and Iran...and so on and so on...WE are at war! And it's a refreshing breeze, literally, to experience politically relevant theater being done by some of the finest (and in Meryl's case THE finest) actors in the world, directed (fucking brilliantly) by George C. Wolfe, in a GENIUS translation by Tony Kushner, with an incredible original score by Jeanine Tesori! This is meaningful, intelligent, political, passionate, brutally honest, and highly entertaining theater.

If we're too cowardly to enlist, at least we can talk about it. To rally the people and call them in line to vote! And it's incredible how NEW this old play feels.

Go see this play if you can, or read Kushner's translation when it's available, or both...actually tonight the performance was being taped for something (I can't remember what) so SEE the tape (at the museum of Film and Television)!

And Meryl Streep...it's incredible to watch a woman my mother's age literally dance around this massive, mud filled, war zone of a stage for over 3 hours, screaming and crying, and commanding and begging, and laughing and singing (she can really sing!) through a VERY difficult text with the energy of a teenager. It's as if she'd been playing this role for months and as if this were her opening night all rolled up in one.

She is the most vital actor I've seen on a stage...ever. Every detail seems technically perfect but utterly impulsive. She is a vocal and physical marvel, filling every ounce of the stage and the surrounding open air of Central Park with Mother Courage's unending drive to live another day. Alexander wise--her energy was limitless...it reached to the stars and beyond.

I even learned a thing or two about performing a song. In one of her most thrilling moments, Meryl performed one of her songs in the first act with the technical perfection of a fully choreographed vaudeville routine. But every gesture seemed to arise spontaneouly out of the words and music as she sang each note. If we had been in a Broadway theater and she on a proscenium stage, the entire house would have given her an immediate and thunderous standing ovation (as we did at the curtain call).

Technical perfection matched with complete physical freedom and emotional truth = brilliance.

It was a thrilling joy to be a part of the audience tonight...even if we all were sitting comfortably in our seats...we were still participating. Which is more than most of us can say for ourselves at home on the sofa.