Theater of War
Directed by John Walter
Filmmaker John Walter artfully captures Meryl Streep groping for - and then seizing - the character in her unforgettable portrayal of Mother Courage in Tony Kushner's adaptation of the Bertolt Brecht masterpiece MOTHER COURAGE AND HER CHILDREN, which was presented by The Public Theater/NY Shakespeare Festival in Central Park in the summer of 2006. Though this film could easily have been crafted into a star vehicle for Streep and Kevin Kline, Walter instead digs deeply into Brecht's motives and politics, unearthing the playwright's famed and famously clever testimony before the House Un-American Activities Committee - the day after which he fled from the United States. THEATER OF WAR is about theater and war, capitalism and Marxism, the postwar anti-Communist hysteria of the 1950s, and one literary genius's ability to make art from them all.
Actress Meryl Streep and playwright Tony Kushner mount a provocative production of MOTHER COURAGE AND HER CHILDREN in the first year of the Iraq War.
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