The Mother at Prospect Theater Project: A Story of Now
Prospect Theater Projects’ “The Mother” opened Friday with a rousing and eerily timely storyline and spirit. Bertolt Brecht wrote this piece in the 1930’s in Germany as the Nazi Regime was rising to power. Now, Prospect and director Anna Rose have adapted the script to be set in the 1960s Central Valley to highlight the struggles of the then farm workers through the lens of El Teatro Campesino, a Theater troupe that travels with the message of the importance of unionizing and striking. I write this just following the protests in downtown Modesto, where PTP has its home, regarding issues we would have hoped to make progress on by now.
Beyond a wise and poignant choice of material, this ensemble play is at its strongest when every member of the cast is onstage together. Arranged in beautiful, powerful tableaus, flag held high, chanting in union, and then breaking off for solos, you feel the timeliness and the eternal relevance in your bones. This is how the play begins and ends…