STORY
A Mother is a groundbreaking theatrical event that not only pays homage to Bertolt Brecht’s powerful, seldom-performed play, The Mother, but also breathes new life into it through a contemporary lens.
Part documentary, part autobiography, part disco, this production is an evocative and personal journey conceived by long-time collaborators Jessica Hecht and Neena Beber, directed by Maria Mileaf.
Through a multilayered approach, combining heartfelt storytelling and a soaring blend of disco, gospel, reggae and Jewish music, led by music director Mustapha Khan, the play creates a visceral experience of loss, resilience, and transformation.
A Mother is set against the vibrant backdrop of 1970s/80s Miami, and places Jess’ story of first love in the broader historical context of the race riots following Arthur Lee McDuffie’s murder by police officers.
Berliner Ensemble “The Mother”
Jessica Hecht and Kenny Vaughan,
“A Mother”, Workshop New York City
Miami Race Riots, 1980
Playwright’s Statement
Since we first met decades ago, Jessica Hecht and I have been eager to continue a creative collaboration that sparked when we began a conversation about theater
and life on an elevator at NYU. When Jessica shared with me a copy of Brecht’s
The Mother that she had found in a used bookstore, we knew this was the story
that we had to tell: the story of a mother’s transformation from protector of her
revolutionary son to fellow activist. One of the many gifts of Brecht’s play is the
way it not only allows but eagerly invites a layering of memory and time. As Jess
and I began to share memories of first loves and first griefs, political awakenings
and motherhood, Yiddish-speaking relatives and disco dancing, we found a
collision of experiences in Miami, the city where I grew up and where Jess
regularly visited her grandparents. But it was impossible to revisit Miami in the
volatile time of our youth without also thinking about the racial and political
unrest that had ushered in the 80s after the acquittal of a gang of police officers
who had murdered an inspiring man named Arthur Lee McDuffie. This is the social
context in which, in our spin on The Mother, a youthful Jess becomes mother to
her future self.
Brecht wrote The Mother as Hitler was rising to power. The threat of
authoritarianism and its abuses is what drove the writing then, and what drives us
now, along with the community-building that was integral to Brecht’s particular
brand of theater-making. Our ever-expanding group of passionate voices began
with composers Mustapha Khan, Kenneth Vaughan and Norman “Skip” Burns,
whose music is essential to the fabric of A Mother. We now invite you to join our
community and to help us tell a story we, unfortunately, find as urgent as ever.
Brecht asked, “Will there be singing in dark times?” before providing his own
answer: “Yes there will be singing, about the dark times.” We joyfully embrace this
ethos. In our Mother there will be singing, and dancing, and water ballet, not to
mention chicken soup. We hope you will enter into the mysterious alchemy of
theater-making with us at Baryshnikov Arts this spring.
