Mother Courage and Her Children

Mother Courage and Her Children description

It's revolutionary! Bertolt Brecht's Mother Courage and her Children is in town.

Mother Courage and her Children at Shakespeare's Globe marks the first time a play by the poet and dramatist Brecht has appeared on this legendary stage. It's also a brand new production of his anti-war masterpiece. Expect something called 'Epic Theatre', Brecht's signature style, focusing on analysis more than simple entertainment and using history as an analogy of the present.

The story is set during the Thirty Years' War, a religious conflict between Catholics and Protestants that shook Europe between 1618 and 1648, devastating the continent. By the time it ended, it had brought about dramatic political and territorial changes.

As war rages, resources grow ever scarcer, and hope becomes a luxury. Mother Courage struggles to pull her cart through a bare wasteland devastated by war. But she isn't just a mother. She's a profiteer and a survivor, a woman who has figured out how to make a living from suffering, and she'll sell anything and everything to keep her family going. Ultimately, victory costs her dear.

Expect live music, fierce humour and grim determination in this contemporary version of Brecht's classic protest play examining capitalism, survival and complicity. The magic is translated by Anna Jordan (Succession, Yen, Lost Atoms) and directed by Globe Associate Artist Elle While (A Midsummer Night's Dream, Hamlet). Michelle Terry (A Midsummer Night's Dream, Macbeth, Hamlet) plays the lead role. The creative team includes Casting Director Becky Paris CDG, Composer James Maloney, Designer takis, and Translator Anna Jordan.

Dark and hedonistic, powerful and memorable, Mother Courage and her Children tickets whisk you back into a frightening past to showcase the futility of war.

Playing at Globe Theatre

21 New Globe Walk, Bankside, SE1 9DT GB (venue info)

Directions