Mother Courage and Her Children

A SAMUEL FRENCH, LTD. TITLE

Mother Courage was first performed in Zurich in 1941 and is usually seen as Brecht's greatest work. Remaining a powerful indictment of war and social injustice, it is an epic drama set in the seventeenth century during the Thirty Years' War. The plot follows the resilient Mother Courage who survives by running a commissary business that profits from all sides. As the war claims all of her children in turn, the play poignantly demonstrates that no one can profit from the war without being subject to its terrible cost also.

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Cast Size

4f, 8m
Subgenre

Adaptations (Stage & Screen)

Details

Summary

This translation by Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Tony Kushner is contemporary and lively, with accessible and humour language, an easy conversational flow, sympathetic, understandable characters and humour. Kushner makes a classic play which is notoriously difficult to perform both stage and reader friendly. It was staged at the National Theatre directed by Deborah Warner and starring Fiona Shaw in September 2009.

Cast Attributes

Reduced casting (Doubling Possible)

Media

“'Tony Kushner's sparky new translation'” – Michael Billington, Guardian, 27.9.09

“'Tony Kushner's bouncy new translation of Brecht's greatest play'” – Paul Taylor, Independent, 29.9.09

“'The translation, by American playwright Tony Kushner, is fast-moving, articulate, and reaches the heart of Brecht's reasonings'” – Paul Callan, Daily Express, 28.9.09

“'Tony Kushner's wry, witty translation'” – Fiona Mountford, Evening Standard, 28.9.09

“'Tony Kushner's translation is zesty'” – Kate Bassett, Independent on Sunday, 4.10.09

Licensing & Materials

Minimum Fee: £69 per performance plus VAT when applicable.

Scripts

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Authors

Bertolt Brecht

Bertolt Brecht (1898-1956), playwright, poet and director, was born in Augsburg, Germany in February 1898. He established himself as a playwright during the 1920s and early 1930s with plays such as Baal, Man is Man, The Threepenny Opera and The Mother. In 1933, as Hitler came ...

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Tony Kushner

Tony Kushner’s plays include Angels in America; Hydriotaphia, or the Death of Dr. Brown; The Illusion, adapted from the play by Pierre Cornelle; Slavs!; A Bright Room Called Day; Homebody/Kabul; Caroline, or Change, a musical with composer Jeanine Tesori; and The Intelligent ...

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Mother Courage and Her Children