The Mother at Prospect Theater Project: A Story of Now
By Summer Krafft
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.
Other moments that command the breath in the room beyond largely to the title character, The Mother, and her son, Pavel. The Mother has been cast with a sense of inspiration: she is written as an old woman, but Elena Gonzalez, who plays her, is younger than several of her cast-mates: an inspired choice, to give this activist a youthful energy in the literal sense, and play with the timelessness of that spirit.
The play features many modest musical elements, including the actors chanting and singing onstage. More of a display of universality to the issues they’re singing about than anything–I certainly wouldn’t call this a musical. The most impactful and arresting of these is Pavlo’s solo. Luis Flores, who plays Pavel, is a young man who, even when asserting himself, does not feel rageful–until this moment. His strong voice, sure posture, and presence cut the space between performer and audience, making the issues of the play more and more immediate and personal. In many moments, we recognize that this is not fiction.
Perhaps the most notable performance is by Laura Martinez. Her fear is palpable, as is her hope. She wields humor and song and the skill of listening as an actor in truly beautiful ways, making herself and her characters, of which she plays many, standouts amongst an already strong performance. As a theater-goer in the area, this makes me incredibly excited as to what she’ll do next.
Elena Gonzalez’s mother in real life, Melinda Gonzalez, appears onstage with her, and the two have a really lovely dynamic to watch, playing friends in the show. Scott Davis is present as a bright spot of humor and levity, dosed out to us in very specific moments. Mary Pierczarka plays her roles with a stern and striking energy that is wonderful to watch soften a bit.
The play itself addresses ideas of Capitalism and Communism, peaceful protest being responded to violently, the breath of a movement as it gains and loses participants, what it can cost you, and a certain degree of appropriate madness in response to the ways we are expected to assimilate. More than anything, it looks at greater and lesser evils, the desperation that plight can create, and why we should not be expected to be happy settling–especially in the face of such inequality.
In the final moments of the play, the entire cast stands, marching, with the flag center stage, chanting “Si Se Puede!”
Indeed. Si se puede.
