Reading
Bernadette Mayer Memorial Celebration
After mounting a successful revolution, four political agitators report back to their party leader and reveal that in the course of their struggle they had to execute a comrade. In order to explain themselves they stage a play. In The Measures Taken, Bertolt Brecht leads us to question the nature of solidarity and sacrifice, as we follow the four agitators' mission to spread class consciousness, to organize labor movements, and to overthrow the evils of capitalist society.
This production of The Measures Taken has sought to use Brecht’s learning play as a way to engage people in radical movements and to discuss its highly relevant issues, from the role of unions in revolutionary work to the complexity of vanguardism. During the Spring and summer of 2022, this show was performed in public parks, community gardens, and activist spaces throughout NYC including collaborations with Brooklyn Eviction Defense, Club A, the Gym, DSA North Brooklyn, Interference Archive, and Haymarket’s Socialist Conference in Chicago. Each show was followed by a facilitated conversation focusing on building interorganizational connections and to reflect on the current state of organizing in Brooklyn and beyond.
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written by Bertolt Brecht
staging and concept by Jurrell Lewis and Lucas Kane
directed by Lucas Kane
performed by Malachi Brown, Ava Kaplan, Nashwa Zaman, Adi Blaustein Rejto, and Kaiden Talesh
music by Malachi Brown and Livia Reiner
costumes by Willa Schwabsky and Zelda Mazor-Freedman
set design by Eliza Williamson
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