Skip to content
The Wooster Group The Wooster Group
Current Work

The Mother

Written in the style of a “learning play”, intended both to entertain and to incite social change, The Mother by Bertolt Brecht tells a story with songs about an illiterate Russian woman’s journey to revolutionary action. The Wooster Group’s new American translation uses the vernacular of early Hollywood gangster movies (one of Brecht’s favorite genres) and features new music by composer Amir ElSaffar.

Media & Ephemera

Ari Fliakos, Kate Valk, and Erin Mullin, in The Wooster Group's THE MOTHER. Photo: Nurith Wagner-Strauss, 2021.
Jim Fletcher, Kate Valk, Ari Fliakos, and Erin Mullin, in The Wooster Group's THE MOTHER. Photo: Nurith Wagner-Strauss, 2021.
Jim Fletcher, Kate Valk, Ari Fliakos, and Erin Mullin, in The Wooster Group's THE MOTHER. Photo: Nurith Wagner-Strauss, 2021.
Erin Mullin, Kate Valk, Ari Fliakos, and Jim Fletcher in The Wooster Group's THE MOTHER. Photo: Maria Baranova, 2021.
Jim Fletcher, Kate Valk, and Ari Fliakos in The Wooster Group's THE MOTHER. Photo: Maria Baranova, 2021.
Ari Fliakos in The Wooster Group's THE MOTHER. Photo: Maria Baranova, 2021.
Ari Fliakos and. Erin Mullin in The Wooster Group's THE MOTHER. Photo: Maria Baranova, 2021.
Kate Valk in The Wooster Group's THE MOTHER. Photo: Maria Baranova, 2021.
Jim Fletcher, Kate Valk, and Ari Fliakos in The Wooster Group's THE MOTHER. Photo: Angel Origgi, 2023.
Jim Fletcher and Kate Valk in The Wooster Group's THE MOTHER. Photo: Angel Origgi, 2023.
Jim Fletcher in The Wooster Group's THE MOTHER. Photo: Angel Origgi, 2023.
Jim Fletcher in The Wooster Group's THE MOTHER. Photo: Nurith Wagner-Strauss, 2021.
Gareth Hobbs in The Wooster Group's THE MOTHER. Photo: Nurith Wagner-Strauss, 2021
Erin Mullin and Kate Valk in The Wooster Group's THE MOTHER. Photo: Nurith Wagner-Strauss, 2021.

Production History

Additional Credits

Translation by The Wooster Group

Music Recording: Amir ElSaffar (trumpet, santur, and modular synthesizer), Sonya Belaya (piano), Stephen Boegehold (drums), Tyrone Allen (bass), and Ole Mathisen (saxophone)

Co-production: piece by piece productions, Wiener Festwochen

Thank you to: Antonia Belt (costumes); Scott Shepherd (translation); Ilie Paun Capriel (props); Enver Chakartash, Charlie Coursey, Steve Cuiffo, and Matthew Dipple, who contributed to the development of the piece; and Hunter Gause (assistant house manager at The Performing Garage 2021-2022). Also thanks to Zoe Hutmacher and Tim Daniel Simon (courtesy of the Goethe Institut), who assisted in the translation process.

Special thanks to Rita Ackermann and Hauser & Wirth.

The Wooster Group wishes to thank the Heirs of Bertolt Brecht.

Music by Amir ElSaffar commissioned by The Wooster Group with funds from New York State Council on the Arts and New Music USA (made possible by annual program support and/or endowment gifts from Mary Flagler Cary Charitable Trust, New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, Helen F. Whitaker Fund, The Aaron Copland Fund for Music, Inc., Rockefeller Brothers Fund, Howard Gilman Foundation, Anonymous).

Additional support provided by the National Endowment for the Arts, the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council, and the New York State Council on the Arts.

Selected Press

Tags

Bertolt Brecht