Product Description

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.This volume contains expert notes on the author's life and work, historical and political background to the play, photographs from stage productions and a glossary of difficult words and phrases.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #23255 in Books
• Published on: 1983-06-09
• Original language: German
• Binding: Paperback
• 160 pages

About the Author
Bertolt Brecht (1898-1956) is acknowledged as one of the great dramatists whose plays, work with the Berliner Ensemble and writing have had a considerable influence on the theatre. His landmark plays include The Threepenny Opera and, while exiled from Germany and living in the USA, such masterpieces as The Life of Galileo, Mother Courage and The Caucasian Chalk Circle.

Customer Reviews

A wonderful play about the struggles of a wartime mother
Brecht's play Mother Courage and Her Children brings together the themes of war, sucess and motherhood, and how the sucess of her business during war time brings about the downfall of her family. Fighting to trade to all sides and become successful, Mother Courage sees almost all of her children lost to war, yet never breaks down emotionally and continues on with life, thriving on the needs of the war. A good business woman but is she a good mother? Brecht explores the will to survive and the fear of defeat, encompassed in a very strong woman and her need to survive. Tragic yet comic; must for all drama and theatre students studying Brecht.