Mother Courage And Her Children

Description

This version of Brecht's great anti-war play by playwright David Hare was premiered by the National Theatre, London, in November 1995. It adopts a freer approach to the text than many editions, adapting the original rather than offering a close translation. In this chronicle of the Thirty Years War, Mother Courage follows the armies back and forth across Europe, selling provisions and liquor from her canteen wagon. One by one she loses her children to the war but will not part with her livelihood - the wagon. The Berlin production of 1949, with Helene Weigel as Mother Courage, marked the foundation of the Berliner Ensemble. Considered by many to be one of the greatest anti-war plays ever written and Brecht's masterpiece, it remains a powerful example of Brecht's Epic Theatre and pioneering theatrical style.

Promotion info

The play is widely regarded as one of the greatest plays of the twentieth century and is a core text for Theatre Studies courses. Brecht is one of the most important dramatists of the twentieth century whose work is studied on every Theatre Studies course. Adapted by British Playwright David Hare whose plays have received awards on both sides of the Atlantic, including a BAFTA, a Lawrence Olivier Award and a New York Drama Critics Circle Award. Mother Courage is a set text for AS and A-Level students in the UK in 2010.

Author description

A major dramatist of the twentieth century, Bertolt Brecht (1898-1956) was the founder of one of the most influential theatre companies, the Berliner Ensemble, and the creator of some of the landmark plays of the twentieth century: The Threepenny Opera, The Life of Galileo, Mother Courage and The Caucasian Chalk Circle. His plays and dramatic theory are central to the study of modern theatre.