"Mother Courage in the rain" came alive last night. As everyone in NY would now, it was raining last night and CHILLY. However, Mother Courage still went on. After five hours of waiting for tickets, I was really nervous about a cancellation, but Meryl Streep and company insisted upon going right on with the play.
It was absolutely breath-taking to watch her perform while we were sitting shivering and wet in our seats. She is the most dedicated actor I have ever seen. Kevin Kline (who was also wonderful) put his coat on her back in one scene where she was only wearing a light shirt. It made me burst into tears. And then, at the end of the first act, she has a place in the song where she throws herself on the ground right in front of where the wood part ends and there is dirt (which of course was mud last night) and she just went for it. Amazing. Just amazing. It was very interesting to watch especially with this play because her character sacrifices everything for her business and survival, and then there's this actress playing her who is sacrificing all the energy and emotion she has for her audience.
In the final scene of the play (after her character has lost all three of her children), she was alone on stage with only her business wagon she pulls from town to town. And there was Meryl Streep pulling this rather large wagon by herself around and around the stage sopping wet from head to toe before her character just collapsed on the stage and the lights went down. It was totally worth the 5 hours of waiting and sitting in the rain. What an amazing company.
-jess-
"I think every actor on the stage should have a shirt that says,'believe it or not-I'm doing my best.'" -Alan Rickman
