eMoTiOnAl DaMaGe

I’ve been going back and forth on my opinion on this question of the distancing effect and whether I think this production allowed for this or not. I honestly don’t know if I can decide for sure, but I’m going to try to work it out as best I can in this blog.

When reading Mother Courage, I can see this distancing effect kind of come into play, as I didn’t feel very connected to any characters deeply in the play. But I didn’t feel completely disconnected with the characters either. I also don’t believe in Brecht’s idea of distancing being the only way to properly critically think about a play’s larger overarching ideas. I think connecting with characters actually can help in this respect.

This particular production being at Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre also made it very difficult, as an audience member, to be disconnected. Being so close to the actors, close enough to touch their feet if I wanted to (which I did not, but Reese did), made it difficult to not immediately feel some sort of connection. The way they also purposely interacted with and included the audience in the scenes of the play also made this very difficult. With these aspects, it seems to me that this production was not successful in conveying the “distancing” aspect that Brecht was going for.

On the other hand, like it was said in class, I did not feel as personally connected with this play at the end as I did with War Horse. I was absolutely balling at the end of War Horse, mainly because I did feel such a close and personal connection with the characters in that play. I feel like I was focusing on the characters specifically and their emotions. But, with Mother Courage, I did not have as much of a physical reaction. I was still feeling sad for the individual characters, but I left with more of a feeling of awe with how amazing the whole experience of the play was, and thoughts over the bigger ideas of war and motherhood represented within the play. So, with this in mind, it seems like the play actually did succeed at conveying this distancing aspect.

As you can see, I am still conflicted. I think there was some distancing effect, but mainly from the way Brecht wrote the play, and not from the way it was produced. But I also don’t think Brecht would have agreed with the direction this production took because it did allow for such a strong connection to still happen. Overall, I think this production was amazing, whether Brecht would have liked it or not, and I can’t wait to go back to the Globe on Thursday!!!