The Play “Mother” by M. Gorky – B. Brecht on Broadway (1935): World Fame and Failure

Abstract

The author examines the only production of Maxim Gorky’s novel “Mother” in the USA, which was adapted by Bertolt Brecht and staged by the leading Left-wing theatre of New York – Theatre Union. A brief description of the Union’s stage activity is given. The process of exporting the work to the USA and the role of the Communist International (Comintern) structures in this process are investigated. The history of artistic confrontation of American authors of the production and German playwright, who arrived from over the ocean to supervise it is considered in the paper. As a result of the research of how the production was being made, as well as how it was perceived by Broadway spectators it is possible to conclude that the realistic aesthetics and psychological insight of Gorky was more recognizable to the American producers than Brecht’s epic theatre. The analysis of the “Mother” production is aimed at expanding the views of Russian writer’s works as well as to consider the problem of familiarization of epic theatre, the Brecht’s dramatic composition by American theater-lovers. This research is based on archival materials and hard-to-access foreign sources.