Mother Courage (Denise Orita) and the Army Cook (Michael Wagg) (Photo: Doug Southall)
Mother Courage and Her Children is one of German playwright Bertolt Brecht’s most famous anti-war plays, written in 1939 in response to the invasion of Poland by Nazi Germany. It is a raw play, exposing the terrors of war and the often drastic choices imposed upon people in their everyday lives as they struggle to survive. It also exposes the hypocrisy inherent in the establishment, including that of military leaders, the church and the economic system; a harsh critique not only of war, but of the systems that support and encourage it. The play follows the fortunes and misfortunes of Mother Courage during the Thirty Years War as she, her three children and her canteen cart follow in the wake of armies and attempt to profit from the chaos and destruction wrought by the war.
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