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.
