Prompt #4: Analyzing Genre and Medium

Mother Courage and her Children, by Bertolt Brecht, depicts a Mother trying to pave her way through a war-torn country to try and build her business in order to keep her family. The text itself depicts Mother Courage as an adamant, harsh, yet thoughtful person. On the other hand, we have Theater of War, directed by John Walter, which is a documentary that shows the making of the recreation of the play Mother Courage in New York wherein Mother Courage is played by Meryl Streep. A scene that is written out in the playbook and the acted out in the documentary is when Kattrin finds a baby and Mother Courage scorns her for taking the baby and tells her to put it back because she has to "spend hours pulling it away (Brecht, 60)." The same scene in the documentary and playbook are comprehended differently both because of the medium and the execution of the scene's delivery.
In the playbook the scene is moved along with stage directions in the text so that the reader will know how Kattrin got the baby as she "emerges from the rubble, carrying an infant (Brecht 60)." In Theater of War, the scene starts from Kattrin calming a baby down by making soothing facial expressions. The dramatic nature of the scene in the playbook as opposed to the beginning of the scene in the documentary shows how the stage directions change the mood of the scene as Brecht wanted Kattrin to emerge from a dead space, holding a new life whereas the director begins this scene in a relaxing manner wherein Kattrin is trying to soothe the baby.
The playbook does not do this scene justice as I believe the documentary portrays Mother Courage's dilemma in action much better than in text. When Meryl Streep delivers the line "You give it back to its mother one-two-three before you get attached and I have to spend hours pulling it away, you hear me?", I believe it is executed much better as you hear the distraught and frustration in her voice as she tries to deal with everything else that is also going on. To me, the text only shows the line as a foil to Kattrin's compassionate nature as opposed to the emotional weight that comes with hearing the line with an actor's interpretation of the voice.