Full casting is complete for the Delacorte Theatre production of Bertolt Brecht's Mother Courage, which will run from August 8th through September 3rd in Central Park.
Joining previously announced stars Meryl Streep and Christopher Walken (who were last seen together in The Seagull in Central Park), the Public Theater production of the classic war drama will also star actor/director Austin Pendleton (The Diary of Anne Frank, Grand Hotel) as the Chaplain, Frederick Weller (
Seascape, Glengarry Glen Ross) as Courage's son Eilif, Geoffrey Arend as son Swiss Cheese and Alexandria Wailes (
Big River) as mute daughter Kattrin,
Jenifer Lewis (
Comin' Uptown, Eubie!) as the prostitute Yvette and
Jack Noseworthy (
Sweet Smell of Success) in various roles. Oscar-winners Streep and Walken will play, as previously announced, the stoic Mother Courage and the steadfast Cook.
Raul Aranas, Max Baker, Ato Essandoh, Colleen Fitzpatrick, Glenn
Fleshler, Michael Izquierdo, Eugene Jones,
George Kmeck, Paco Lozano,
Michael Markham, Larry Marshall, Sean Phillips, Silvestre Rasuk,
Brittany Underwood, Jade Wu and Waleed Zuaiter will also be featured in the production.
The show will be directed by Tony Award-winner George C. Wolfe. Pulitzer Prize-winner Tony Kushner (Angels in America) has written a new adaptation of the classic drama of war, commerce and family. The production will feature original music by Jeanine Tesori, with whom Kushner penned Caroline, or Change."In
Brecht's seminal work we follow Mother Courage over a period of 12
years as one by one her children Kattrin, Eilif and Swiss Cheese are
taken away by a vicious war. As Mother Courage seeks to profit from the
war that is killing her children, she questions the roles of honesty,
virtue and family in the face of a bitter struggle for survival," state
press notes.Mother Courage and Her Children
will be the final production of Shakespeare in the Park 2006 and The
Public's year-long 50th Anniversary celebration. Artistic Director
Oskar Eustis stated "This summer's shows in the park are a perfect
manifestation of what The Public Theater stands for: our nation's
greatest actors performing the world's greatest plays under the
direction of thrilling and boundary-breaking directors free for the
people. The fact that both of these magnificent classics speak to a
world at war is a powerful reminder of how, in the hands of remarkable
artists, great plays of the past can speak to the state of the nation
better than any politician."
Visit www.publictheater.com for more information.
