Why must the Black Mother Courage be delusional?
December 31, 2015 11:07 AM Subscribe
Actress Tonya Pinkins, on her decision to depart from Classical Stage Company's production of Mother Courage, which was set to open next week.
Wow. Tonya is amazing. She is 100% right about how white and segregated theatre is.
posted by Uncle at 11:34 AM on December 31, 2015 [3 favorites]
posted by Uncle at 11:34 AM on December 31, 2015 [3 favorites]
If I were a producer, I would be finding money right now to have Tonya Pinkins do her Mother Courage somewhere else.
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 11:39 AM on December 31, 2015 [14 favorites]
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 11:39 AM on December 31, 2015 [14 favorites]
From her statement:
My subordinate position was most clearly communicated to me when I attempted to perform a task Brecht specifically wrote for Mother Courage: snatching a fur coat off an armed soldier's back. The actor playing the soldier argued, "I'm a man. This is a war. She gotta RESPECT that; I'd have to kill her!" I fired back, "Brecht wrote it. Mother Courage CAN snatch the fur coat and not get killed. Brecht is illustrating her as an 'Hyena of the war.'" I told the actor I was going to snatch the fur coat, and if he "had to kill me," the play would have to end seven scenes earlier than Brecht had intended.
I snatched the fur coat at the performance. The actor found a way to continue the play. However, the director said that in future, I couldn't do it, because, "the actor said he would kill you." WHAT?!
Wow. This is... deeply fucked up. There is something super weird going on in the interpersonal politics at CSC for this to happen. With interactions like that, I'm not surprised she quit.
I hope she has a chance to perform the role as she envisions it, it sounds like a play I would love to see.
posted by Adridne at 11:59 AM on December 31, 2015 [23 favorites]
Who Loses, Who Thrives When White Creatives Tell Black Stories?
When Black bodies are on the stage, Black perspectives must be reflected. This is not simply a matter of "artistic interpretation"; race and sex play a pivotal role in determining who holds the power to shape representation. A Black female should have a say in the presentation of a Black female on stage.
PREACH
Tonya Pinkins' essay is beautifully written. She speaks truth to power. The world has lost a great performance because clearly she would have killed it (if the play hadn't been neutered by Kulick).
I wonder if Brian Kulick would have attempted similar shenanigans if his Mother Courage was Olympia Dukakis or Meryl Streep? Or if either of those actors would have gotten the same grief if they objected to the changes to the play the director was demanding? Pinkins made a brave choice. I really, really hope she gets to play MOTHER COURAGE one day. And I hope I am sitting in the front row when she does.
posted by pjsky at 12:00 PM on December 31, 2015 [5 favorites]
When Black bodies are on the stage, Black perspectives must be reflected. This is not simply a matter of "artistic interpretation"; race and sex play a pivotal role in determining who holds the power to shape representation. A Black female should have a say in the presentation of a Black female on stage.
PREACH
Tonya Pinkins' essay is beautifully written. She speaks truth to power. The world has lost a great performance because clearly she would have killed it (if the play hadn't been neutered by Kulick).
I wonder if Brian Kulick would have attempted similar shenanigans if his Mother Courage was Olympia Dukakis or Meryl Streep? Or if either of those actors would have gotten the same grief if they objected to the changes to the play the director was demanding? Pinkins made a brave choice. I really, really hope she gets to play MOTHER COURAGE one day. And I hope I am sitting in the front row when she does.
posted by pjsky at 12:00 PM on December 31, 2015 [5 favorites]
> "Setting Mother Courage in DR Congo is an inspired idea ..."
... and was a play called "Ruined" that won the Pulitzer Prize in 2009. The whole concept was derivative of someone else's inspiration. If you wanted to know how a director could "have that idea" and still not be up to understanding the play.
That being said, Brecht was pretty explicit that Mother Courage is not meant to be a completely admirable figure, but a participant in the events that end up completely destroying everything important to her. "Delusional" is probably not quite how I would put it, but if by that the director meant Mother Courage was willfully blind to her own culpability in the deaths of her children, it's certainly as valid an interpretation as seeing her as a "Survivor" ... although it's not a *more* valid interpretation. It's a complex play and Mother Courage is a complex character.
But frankly, the whole thing sounds like a massive clusterf*ck. This discussion of where the play's interpretation was ultimately going didn't take place until TECH REHEARSAL? An actor playing a soldier was allowed to trump the written intent of the play and dictate actions? And I have no reservations about agreeing with Tonya Pinkins about "setting it in the DR Congo" without making any attempt to specify locations or events to the conflict -- that isn't "setting it in the DR Congo", it's using the DR Congo as set dressing. (Bearing in mind I haven't seen the production so cannot swear sight-unseen this was the case.)
posted by kyrademon at 12:03 PM on December 31, 2015 [16 favorites]
... and was a play called "Ruined" that won the Pulitzer Prize in 2009. The whole concept was derivative of someone else's inspiration. If you wanted to know how a director could "have that idea" and still not be up to understanding the play.
That being said, Brecht was pretty explicit that Mother Courage is not meant to be a completely admirable figure, but a participant in the events that end up completely destroying everything important to her. "Delusional" is probably not quite how I would put it, but if by that the director meant Mother Courage was willfully blind to her own culpability in the deaths of her children, it's certainly as valid an interpretation as seeing her as a "Survivor" ... although it's not a *more* valid interpretation. It's a complex play and Mother Courage is a complex character.
But frankly, the whole thing sounds like a massive clusterf*ck. This discussion of where the play's interpretation was ultimately going didn't take place until TECH REHEARSAL? An actor playing a soldier was allowed to trump the written intent of the play and dictate actions? And I have no reservations about agreeing with Tonya Pinkins about "setting it in the DR Congo" without making any attempt to specify locations or events to the conflict -- that isn't "setting it in the DR Congo", it's using the DR Congo as set dressing. (Bearing in mind I haven't seen the production so cannot swear sight-unseen this was the case.)
posted by kyrademon at 12:03 PM on December 31, 2015 [16 favorites]
Adridne, you beat me to it. That bit really stuck out.
And it's admittedly been a long time since I read Mother Courage, but I do not remember any discussion in class as to whether she was delusional. That would definitely be a reading of the play that I would not be expecting while sitting in the audience.
posted by emjaybee at 12:04 PM on December 31, 2015
And it's admittedly been a long time since I read Mother Courage, but I do not remember any discussion in class as to whether she was delusional. That would definitely be a reading of the play that I would not be expecting while sitting in the audience.
posted by emjaybee at 12:04 PM on December 31, 2015
How many theater professionals of color have to quit plays, or pull their plays from production, or otherwise refuse to participate in the making of theater to make a pretty simple point: People are the experts in their own experience, and, especially in a collaborative art like theater, their expertise must be respected.
posted by maxsparber at 12:15 PM on December 31, 2015 [5 favorites]
posted by maxsparber at 12:15 PM on December 31, 2015 [5 favorites]
Wow. Pinkins's argument is dead-on. Mother Courage is definitely about a woman who has delusions that her actions can change anything, but she is anything but delusional. I couldn't believe the response to her charges was so openly weak - I used the wrong word! Shakespeare plays often get set in unlikely places without extra context!
This sounds to me more like an example of how someone in a minority who is trying in good faith to get through an awful scenario keeps telling themselves "if I just work hard and keep my head down and politely show the people in power where they're wrong, they're bound to realize it and change the situation." It's always a trap. But it's what society always says to do.
If I were a producer, I would be finding money right now to have Tonya Pinkins do her Mother Courage somewhere else.
Could not agree more.
posted by Mchelly at 12:16 PM on December 31, 2015 [5 favorites]
This sounds to me more like an example of how someone in a minority who is trying in good faith to get through an awful scenario keeps telling themselves "if I just work hard and keep my head down and politely show the people in power where they're wrong, they're bound to realize it and change the situation." It's always a trap. But it's what society always says to do.
If I were a producer, I would be finding money right now to have Tonya Pinkins do her Mother Courage somewhere else.
Could not agree more.
posted by Mchelly at 12:16 PM on December 31, 2015 [5 favorites]
... and was a play called "Ruined" that won the Pulitzer Prize in 2009. The whole concept was derivative of someone else's inspiration. If you wanted to know how a director could "have that idea" and still not be up to understanding the play.
Ah, that makes perfect sense, then. The language of the rebuttal, especially the part about contacting the Brecht estate to make sure this is okay, makes it sound like the director thought of DR Congo as little more than a fancy setting, like staging Julius Caesar in fascist Italy or Much Ado About Nothing in the 1950's, etc.
posted by Ndwright at 12:29 PM on December 31, 2015
Ah, that makes perfect sense, then. The language of the rebuttal, especially the part about contacting the Brecht estate to make sure this is okay, makes it sound like the director thought of DR Congo as little more than a fancy setting, like staging Julius Caesar in fascist Italy or Much Ado About Nothing in the 1950's, etc.
posted by Ndwright at 12:29 PM on December 31, 2015
Yeah, I gotta say, if some random extra's interpretation of his role was allowed to override not only the lead's interpretation of hers but even Brecht's explicit stage instructions, Tonya's not wrong on them seeing her as just a prop.
posted by tavella at 12:36 PM on December 31, 2015 [22 favorites]
posted by tavella at 12:36 PM on December 31, 2015 [22 favorites]
Huh. Ruined was by Lynn Nottage, an African-American playwright, who traveled to Uganda to interview women who had actually experienced the conflict in the Congo.
Contrast that with this director's version, which, according to him, did not focus on the specifics of the Congolese experience. So he has, if I'm reading this right, ignored the specifics of the experience of Congolese women, ignored the back actress who was pushing for those experiences to be part of the text, and ignored the fact that an African-American woman had already written a play very much like was he envisioned.
The whole thing sounds like an exercise in erasing the voice of African and African-American women, and it's probably best that it won't happen.
posted by maxsparber at 12:38 PM on December 31, 2015 [17 favorites]
Contrast that with this director's version, which, according to him, did not focus on the specifics of the Congolese experience. So he has, if I'm reading this right, ignored the specifics of the experience of Congolese women, ignored the back actress who was pushing for those experiences to be part of the text, and ignored the fact that an African-American woman had already written a play very much like was he envisioned.
The whole thing sounds like an exercise in erasing the voice of African and African-American women, and it's probably best that it won't happen.
posted by maxsparber at 12:38 PM on December 31, 2015 [17 favorites]
I am so impressed by her statement. Would attend a reading of it just so that I could applaud her.
posted by prefpara at 12:39 PM on December 31, 2015 [2 favorites]
posted by prefpara at 12:39 PM on December 31, 2015 [2 favorites]
That bit with the actor playing the soldier... it's interesting because it reminds me of a lot of RPGs I've played with people. The rules for combat are usually relatively straightforward. The rules for social situations are not. Any time you wind up with player-versus-player... things can break down fast. "Your character can't seduce my character! My character doesn't find your character attractive!" Despite the fact that the seducer has, like, maxed-out charm/manipulation/persuasion/whatever and the other party's stats indicate roughly the level of willpower of a completely untrained puppy. "Yeah, but that's not the vision I have for my character!" Of course it isn't, because your vision of your character is just the word "badass" written in crayon on your character sheet. Look, the thing written down says that she does this and the guy doesn't kill her. Maybe you can make up whatever reason you need to justify why that happens, but you agreed to the rules of this game when you started playing, and the rules of this particular game is that you perform the production that's written in the damn script.
And any DM who lets one player pull this kind of shit in a way that disrupts others is a bad DM. If everybody gets to do it, then you're just playing more free-form, fine. But I'm guessing it would not have gone down well for her to shoot back that, okay, fine, her vision of her character was that in this scene she's completely invulnerable to death. This was a director who was pretty clearly failing at doing his job, if he couldn't adequately explain to some guy that sometimes even soldiers in wartime may actually have the self-control to accept that sometimes they have to pay for goods and services.
Not that things couldn't have gotten so much more complex, but this sounds like total amateur hour, no wonder she sounds so horrified by it.
posted by Sequence at 12:47 PM on December 31, 2015 [19 favorites]
And any DM who lets one player pull this kind of shit in a way that disrupts others is a bad DM. If everybody gets to do it, then you're just playing more free-form, fine. But I'm guessing it would not have gone down well for her to shoot back that, okay, fine, her vision of her character was that in this scene she's completely invulnerable to death. This was a director who was pretty clearly failing at doing his job, if he couldn't adequately explain to some guy that sometimes even soldiers in wartime may actually have the self-control to accept that sometimes they have to pay for goods and services.
Not that things couldn't have gotten so much more complex, but this sounds like total amateur hour, no wonder she sounds so horrified by it.
posted by Sequence at 12:47 PM on December 31, 2015 [19 favorites]
theatre is really outside my experience - I am totally not objecting to this, but I have a question about it:
A Black female should have a say in the presentation of a Black female on stage.
Is it meant to mean specifically the black actor on stage has a say, or could that insight be gained with a consultant or assistant director or I-don't-really-know...
posted by j_curiouser at 12:48 PM on December 31, 2015
A Black female should have a say in the presentation of a Black female on stage.
Is it meant to mean specifically the black actor on stage has a say, or could that insight be gained with a consultant or assistant director or I-don't-really-know...
posted by j_curiouser at 12:48 PM on December 31, 2015
Tony Kushner's commentary on the play makes it pretty clear that he, at least, doesn't not consider Mother Courage to be an easily admired character, and I think the actress seems to have a different interpretation. She stated
"“the epitome of every poor, undocumented, battered, trafficked and immigrant woman hustling to provide for her family however she must.”"
Kushner (who translated the play) said:
Her indomitability, her hardiness, come to seem dehumanising, less mythic than monstrous.
nd yet we are moved by this woman, as, inarguably, Brecht meant us to be. She's egoistical because she has almost nothing. She has a vitality and a carnality. Even though her appetites seem obscene, set as they are against widespread carnage, the grinding down of Courage's ambition and self-possession are devastating to watch. She's smart and she thinks her cleverness has gained her the little something, the small sufficiency – her wagon – by means of which she attains a degree of agency and power in her malevolent world. "
I'm not sure that Mother Courage is just a poor woman trying to get along in brutal circumstances--she is, but there's much more to her and I don't see that complexity reflected in Pinkins' statement.
Kushner again
" It places us in judgment of the actions of a woman who inhabits a universe defined by war, who often makes calamitous choices; but her choices are unbearably hard, and sometimes all but impossible. She refuses to understand the nature of her tragic circumstances; she is afraid that looking back will weaken her. "
posted by Ideefixe at 12:50 PM on December 31, 2015
"“the epitome of every poor, undocumented, battered, trafficked and immigrant woman hustling to provide for her family however she must.”"
Kushner (who translated the play) said:
Her indomitability, her hardiness, come to seem dehumanising, less mythic than monstrous.
nd yet we are moved by this woman, as, inarguably, Brecht meant us to be. She's egoistical because she has almost nothing. She has a vitality and a carnality. Even though her appetites seem obscene, set as they are against widespread carnage, the grinding down of Courage's ambition and self-possession are devastating to watch. She's smart and she thinks her cleverness has gained her the little something, the small sufficiency – her wagon – by means of which she attains a degree of agency and power in her malevolent world. "
I'm not sure that Mother Courage is just a poor woman trying to get along in brutal circumstances--she is, but there's much more to her and I don't see that complexity reflected in Pinkins' statement.
Kushner again
" It places us in judgment of the actions of a woman who inhabits a universe defined by war, who often makes calamitous choices; but her choices are unbearably hard, and sometimes all but impossible. She refuses to understand the nature of her tragic circumstances; she is afraid that looking back will weaken her. "
posted by Ideefixe at 12:50 PM on December 31, 2015
Is it meant to mean specifically the black actor on stage has a say, or could that insight be gained with a consultant or assistant director or I-don't-really-know..
I think she is saying that specifically as a Black woman playing a Black woman, she gets a little more say into her portrayal. But I don't think she would disagree that having more people of color involved in directing is a bad thing. Having more people of color involved in decision making in the theatre would be a great thing.
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 12:52 PM on December 31, 2015 [2 favorites]
I think she is saying that specifically as a Black woman playing a Black woman, she gets a little more say into her portrayal. But I don't think she would disagree that having more people of color involved in directing is a bad thing. Having more people of color involved in decision making in the theatre would be a great thing.
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 12:52 PM on December 31, 2015 [2 favorites]
I don't see that complexity reflected in Pinkins' statement.
I think that is in part because her statement is in direct response to the situation, which creates pressure for her to offset and rebalance the (to simplify) overly negative interpretation with one that is positive and therefore drives a vision that is perhaps more positive than it otherwise would have been. Also, her statement isn't her dramaturgical thesis on the play, so I don't think it's fair to treat it as a complete thought on the character in all nuance and complexity.
posted by prefpara at 1:02 PM on December 31, 2015 [2 favorites]
I think that is in part because her statement is in direct response to the situation, which creates pressure for her to offset and rebalance the (to simplify) overly negative interpretation with one that is positive and therefore drives a vision that is perhaps more positive than it otherwise would have been. Also, her statement isn't her dramaturgical thesis on the play, so I don't think it's fair to treat it as a complete thought on the character in all nuance and complexity.
posted by prefpara at 1:02 PM on December 31, 2015 [2 favorites]
I've always wanted to direct Mother Courage. If you've not read it and you're relying on what's been written in these articles to figure out what its all about, you're doing yourself a disservice. Brecht is writing from his strong socialist perspective and Mother Courage, from this point of view, is a person so committed to capitalism that making a living is quite literally more important than anything else.
In performance, you can of course stage the character any way you want and it is essential that the actress playing the part not judge her and play her as somebody who can justify all of her decisions. This is true of any character - you need to be able to play it with integrity and without judgement. However, the way you play the character might be perceived differently from how you perceive the character in the context of the whole play.
In context of this play and Brecht's politics, a salesman making a profit off of war and inadvertently sacrificing her three children to do it is not somebody to be admired. The name "Mother Courage" is, at least in part, ironic. If, at the end of the play, you're admiring the character and not asking yourself "was it worth it what this character chose," there is a serious problem with the production.
That all being said, regarding setting plays in different contexts - yes, this is often done with Shakespearean productions, but unless there's a solid reason to select a particular new setting, it just window dressing. I can't say for certain, but I find myself tending to agree with kyrademon that this is too close to Ruined for comfort. If you're going to select a setting and not allow the actors to play characters the way they'd live in that setting (i.e. whitewashing a non-white setting) then you're just marketing the play. You want interesting publicity photos, not a real look at what this play means in this context.
tl;dr - Team Pinkens
posted by Joey Michaels at 1:08 PM on December 31, 2015 [6 favorites]
In performance, you can of course stage the character any way you want and it is essential that the actress playing the part not judge her and play her as somebody who can justify all of her decisions. This is true of any character - you need to be able to play it with integrity and without judgement. However, the way you play the character might be perceived differently from how you perceive the character in the context of the whole play.
In context of this play and Brecht's politics, a salesman making a profit off of war and inadvertently sacrificing her three children to do it is not somebody to be admired. The name "Mother Courage" is, at least in part, ironic. If, at the end of the play, you're admiring the character and not asking yourself "was it worth it what this character chose," there is a serious problem with the production.
That all being said, regarding setting plays in different contexts - yes, this is often done with Shakespearean productions, but unless there's a solid reason to select a particular new setting, it just window dressing. I can't say for certain, but I find myself tending to agree with kyrademon that this is too close to Ruined for comfort. If you're going to select a setting and not allow the actors to play characters the way they'd live in that setting (i.e. whitewashing a non-white setting) then you're just marketing the play. You want interesting publicity photos, not a real look at what this play means in this context.
tl;dr - Team Pinkens
posted by Joey Michaels at 1:08 PM on December 31, 2015 [6 favorites]
"Mother Courage" is a great play and it's easy to put on a pretty good performance of it. However, it's hard to do a very good version, because the audience must identify with Mother Courage and then become horrified by her. They must also see the artificiality of the staging while constantly getting suckered into it, and then remember that it's just a play, and then get suckered in again. I can't see how setting it in the Congo helps. It's about every war ever.
posted by acrasis at 1:48 PM on December 31, 2015 [5 favorites]
posted by acrasis at 1:48 PM on December 31, 2015 [5 favorites]
I think there's a difference between asking that your character be seen as a role model, and asking that the character not be seen as a two-dimentional idea. Mother Courage is a monster - I don't know that it would be possible to portray her as a role model (though I'd love to see someone try), but that doesn't mean she isn't strong, doesn't get her way, doesn't fight with all that she has. From Pinkins's description, it sounded like they were trying to portray her as Don Quixote. If so, she's not wrong - it's a completely different ineffectuality.
posted by Mchelly at 1:50 PM on December 31, 2015 [5 favorites]
posted by Mchelly at 1:50 PM on December 31, 2015 [5 favorites]
"Your character can't seduce my character! My character doesn't find your character attractive!" Despite the fact that the seducer has, like, maxed-out charm/manipulation/persuasion/whatever and the other party's stats indicate roughly the level of willpower of a completely untrained puppy. "Yeah, but that's not the vision I have for my character!" Of course it isn't, because your vision of your character is just the word "badass" written in crayon on your character sheet.
*** Nerdy RPG derail ***
I agree with you in general (and definitely in the example of the soldier in the play), but you couldn't have picked a worse example. If a role player does not want their character to have sex, the GM should not let it happen. Part of the GM's job is keeping the game fun for everyone and shit like "seducing" another PC without the player's consent is over the line.
posted by ODiV at 5:37 PM on December 31, 2015 [5 favorites]
*** Nerdy RPG derail ***
I agree with you in general (and definitely in the example of the soldier in the play), but you couldn't have picked a worse example. If a role player does not want their character to have sex, the GM should not let it happen. Part of the GM's job is keeping the game fun for everyone and shit like "seducing" another PC without the player's consent is over the line.
posted by ODiV at 5:37 PM on December 31, 2015 [5 favorites]
If you had seen her portrayal of Caroline in Caroline or Change, or the woman she played in Rasheeda Speaking, you would have NO doubt in your mind that Pinkins is at the very top of the class when it comes to not needing to be liked or sympathetic to the audience.
Her characters are hard as diamonds and as muilti-faceted and in them we can see reflections of our own beauty and ugliness, nobility and foolishness. She takes well-written characters and makes them into Medea. (which I would KILL to see her play)
She is as ugly and wrong and mean and unsympathetic and heartbreaking as is called for in the script.
This flap may be over many things, but it is most definitely NOT over Pinkins' desire to make Mother Courage into a sympathetic hero.
I have never seen an actor who is less concerned with likability. And that is what makes her performances so breathtaking. She DARES you to dismiss her just because she does not soften herself to make you comfortable.
posted by mer2113 at 5:47 PM on December 31, 2015 [10 favorites]
Her characters are hard as diamonds and as muilti-faceted and in them we can see reflections of our own beauty and ugliness, nobility and foolishness. She takes well-written characters and makes them into Medea. (which I would KILL to see her play)
She is as ugly and wrong and mean and unsympathetic and heartbreaking as is called for in the script.
This flap may be over many things, but it is most definitely NOT over Pinkins' desire to make Mother Courage into a sympathetic hero.
I have never seen an actor who is less concerned with likability. And that is what makes her performances so breathtaking. She DARES you to dismiss her just because she does not soften herself to make you comfortable.
posted by mer2113 at 5:47 PM on December 31, 2015 [10 favorites]
acrasis: "They must also see the artificiality of the staging while constantly getting suckered into it, and then remember that it's just a play, and then get suckered in again."
Word. Verfremdungseffekt ain't for lightweights.
posted by Dr. Zira at 10:04 PM on December 31, 2015 [7 favorites]
Word. Verfremdungseffekt ain't for lightweights.
posted by Dr. Zira at 10:04 PM on December 31, 2015 [7 favorites]
Totally right, ODiV. D&D ain't a dating simulator, you're in a dungeon not a club, and trying to use the dice to force someone into role-playing an uncomfortable situation is literally the skeeziest thing ever.
posted by effugas at 1:38 PM on January 1, 2016 [1 favorite]
posted by effugas at 1:38 PM on January 1, 2016 [1 favorite]
« Older How Bad Are Things? | Stupid Data Tricks Newer »
This thread has been archived and is closed to new comments
His pathetic rebuttal doesn't help, either. She's not taking issue with setting the play in Congo! Which is what he spends most of his rebuttal on! The part where he actually addresses her points essentially amounts to "here's a paragraph Brecht wrote that tangentially agrees with my preconceived notions of the play so I'm right and nothing else matters except the fact that I am right also I did nothing wrong at any point."
posted by Ndwright at 11:30 AM on December 31, 2015 [7 favorites]