Meryl Streep will Play Mother Courage at the Delacorte in 2006

By: Apr. 21, 2005
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Written by Maya Cantu

After having helped in making tickets scarce in the Public Theatre's 2001 production of The Seagull, Meryl Streep will return to Central Park's Delacorte Theatre in the summer of 2006 to play the title role in Brecht's Mother Courage.

Tony Kushner will write a new adaptation of the classic drama of war, commerce and family. Mother Courage spans several years in the Thirty Years War, and concerns a persistent, financially shrewd woman who exploits the war to earn money but causes harm to her children along the way.

Specific dates have not been announced yet--nor have Streep's co-stars.

Streep is arguably the foremost screen actress working today, and has won 2 of her 13 Academy Award nominations. Although her stage career has been sporadic lately (her Arkadina in The Seagull marked a long-awaited return), it is also an accomplished one. After winning notice in Joe Papp's Lincoln Center production of Trelawney of the Wells in the mid-70s, Streep went on to other stage roles. She played two characters in one night in Miller's The Memory of Two Mondays and Williams' 27 Wagons Full of Cotton at the Phoenix Theatre; she won the Outer Critics' Circle Award, the Theatre World Award and earned a Tony nomination in the process. Other Broadway and off-Broadway credits include Henry V, Measure for Measure, The Taming of the Shrew, The Cherry Orchard, the Weill-Brecht musical Happy End and Elizabeth Swados' musical Alice at the Palace (for which she won an Obie).

Kushner, of course, is the playwright behind Angels in America, Homebody/Kabul and A Bright Room Called Day. He recently wrote the book and lyrics to Caroline, or Change. His controversial new play-in-progress, Only We Who Guard the Mystery Shall be Unhappy, is a politically-minded piece centered around First Lady Laura Bush; it was given a benefit reading in August of 2004.

Artistic director Oskar Eustis, who made the announcement about Streep, has also confirmed that Lynn Collins and Brian Bedford will headline the Delacorte's As You Like It from June 25th to July 17th. Mark Lamos will direct. Tickets, as always, will be free.

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