cover art compliments of A C T
based on Vassa Zheleznova
by Maxim Gorky
translated by Tanya Chebotarev
“…Dark, invigoratingly sardonic…Constance
Congdon’s MOTHER is as uncompromisingly savvy as it is bitingly funny....
MOTHER is an exhilarating blend of one of Chekhov’s dysfunctional
provincial families run through the wringer of Joe Orton’s iconoclastic
comedy. It’s also Maxim Gorky through and through, providing a canny look at
Gorky as a dramatic bridge between Chekhov and Brecht.
Congdon’s A MOTHER is adapted from Gorky’s play VASSA ZHELEZNOVA....
MOTHER [is] as much an enlightening rediscovery as an exciting new play.
Vassa, a kind of proto-Mother Courage, is the head of a family one
generation removed from serfdom and facing a crisis. The husband with whom she’s
built a fairly successful peat-mining and tile-making business is dying
upstairs. Without a will, all their possessions will pass to their two sons—the
uselessly self-pitying Pavel and the slothful, self-indulgent Semyon, a man who
can no longer fit into any of his clothes except pajamas.
Congdon’s dialogue is crisp, her Gorky-derived characters
captivating and her wit devilishly sharp....”
Robert Hurwitt, San Francisco Chronicle
4 M, 5 F
Originally produced by American Conservatory Theater in San Francisco
I S B N: 0-88145-243-2, $12.95