Daytripping, part 2 of 2

When planning our daytrip to Carlisle, I found out that the Dickinson College Theater and Dance Departments were putting on a free outdoor adaptation of Bertolt Brecht's (1898-1956) play Mother Courage and Her Children [Mutter Courage und Ihre Kinder, 1939]. Sometimes described as the greatest play of the 20th century, it discusses the all-around tragedy of warfare through the rhetorical distance of the 17th century.

A. went back to the car to nap with a headache while K. and I gathered in the courtyard outside the theater arts building with a sizable crowd (of 50-60?) to enjoy the pandemic-safe performance. It took place entirely outside at 12 different spots around campus, with mobile scenery and the actors miked. The scenes were interspersed with dances by two different troupes, and some tableaus. It was quite well done, and the rain had cleared up. Here we are looking down over the railing of a walkway onto the action.

Dancers in orange overalls and plaid shirts on the left, action on the wagon on the right.

This was my favorite dance piece, involving a different group in blue and white. Too bad it involved beginning on the (wet) ground in slow motion as each dancer gather momentum, finally processing out through the gate with the college's name.

The scene that happened next in the courtyard involved a good bit of humorous staging involving the checkerboard in the foreground.

Interlude with both companies.

As the Thirty-Years War (1618-1648) drags on, Mother Courage loses her children one by one, including a son who was on the right side of the law as long as he was raping and pillaging during a campaign but was found to be a war criminal when a brief cease-fire was declared. This was a particular "Brechtian" moment of satirical irony. Meanwhile, Mother Courage wheels and deals, always trying to make a buck while avoiding any but the most superficial political allegiances.

By the time of the last dance piece, it was full dark. (Daylight Saving Time had ended the night before.) The last couple of scenes were done here in the original courtyard, in front of the white house in the background and then around the corner at this lawn.

Then it was back in the car for the half-hour trip back to Harrisburg, where the brewery I had picked out actually closed at 7pm, so we opted for my second choice, McGrath's Irish pub. It was amazing. (See my Yelp review.) Finally, I boarded a Greyhound bus back to Pittsburgh. Bless him, Dear Husband came to pick me up after midnight so I didn't have to walk to my car in the garage alone or drive myself home after a long but good day. I am really glad K. extended the invitation and that I was able to make the time and the trip.