A Work in Infinite Progress

For the Wooster Group, theater is a religion and the process is the point. Its latest: a years-in-the-making adaptation of Brecht’s The Mother.

- By Helen Shaw

The members of the 46-year-old Wooster Group are the monks of New York theater. They’re our holy fools, who—even when no one is watching—keep the art’s sacred fires burning. Rehearsal isn’t so much a preparation-to-show as it is a kind of religious practice—as endless, deliberative, and open to inspiration as a Shaker meeting.

Could covid stop them? Certainly every other theater in New York was shut down. But ensconced in its longtime home, the Performing Garage, the group has continued doing what it always does. Even without quarantine, Wooster productions can take years to develop, since they’re the product of collaborative composition, meticulous study, and skill acquisition. For Poor Theater (2004), the ensemble trained as modern dancers; for