Part Brecht … Part Autobiography … Part Disco
Radically adapted from
Bertolt Brecht’s banned play The Mother
World Premiere on March 29, 2025 at Baryshnikov Arts Center — a SUCCESS!
Jessica Hecht is “warm, funny, and charming.”
— The New York Times
“A savory cultural casserole”
“Jessica Hecht is “especially captivating—quite possibly the most skilled high-comedy technician of her generation”
— Lighting & Sound America
“A Mother proves that being irreverently playful and deeply political may not be the strange bedfellows you think.”
— Stage and Cinema
Featuring
Tony Nominee JESSICA HECHT
Hamilton’s FERGIE PHILIPPE
Delilah Napier
Portia Johnson
Zane Pais
THE STORY OF
A MOTHER
A MOTHER, a groundbreaking new play with original songs, is the story of first love, first grief, and theater camp. Set in Miami Beach circa 1980, Jessica Hecht weaves together teenage memories of her boyfriend Daryl, played by Fergie L. Philippe, as they disco dance away the last two weeks of the 1970s just as racial tensions in Miami rise. Jessica simultaneously steps into Brecht’s banned play The Mother, taking on the role of a woman who becomes an activis through the revolutionary work of her son. An unforgettable ride through layers of memory and invention.
Will there be singing in dark times? Yes, there will be singing. About the dark times.
And… there will also be disco dancing, water ballet, and chicken soup.
WRITTEN BY
NEENA BEBER
CONCEIVED BY
JESSICA HECHT
+
NEENA BEBER
MUSIC BY
MUSTAPHA KHAN +
KENNY VAUGHN +
NORMAN “SKIP” BURNS
CHOREOGRAPHY BY
SHURA BARYSHNIKOV
DIRECTED BY
MARIA MILEAF
Listen up!
To the sound of A MOTHER
Original Music by Mustapha Khan, Kenny Vaughan, and Norman “Skip “ Burns. Featuring Jessica Hecht.
All Rights Reserved 2025
Documentary - June 2022 by Jethro Waters
WATCH THIS!