Poverty, Courage, and Compromise: Brechtian Dimensions and Modern Directing in Mutter, a Performance by Dumitru Acriș – A study on how Brechtian aesthetics are reinterpreted through contemporary directorial means

The article investigates how the performance Mutter, directed by Dumitru Acriș, rearticulates the themes of poverty, courage, and compromise through a complex hybridization of Stanislavskian psychological realism and Brechtian distancing techniques. The analysis follows the concrete mechanisms of stage construction—mise-en-scène, space, rhythm, gesture, and object—in order to highlight how these elements generate a representation that is simultaneously emotional and critical. Poverty functions as an organizing principle of the scenic universe, shaping behaviours and relational dynamics. The performance alternates realistic sequences with moments of social commentary, transforming the individual story into a reflection on contemporary socio-economic mechanisms. The result is a form of modern social theatre that establishes a dialogue between the interiority of lived experience and the lucidity of analysis.