Mother Courage and Her Children
By: Bertolt Brecht
GENRE: Epic Theatre
SETTING:
Episode 1: A highway near a city.
Episode 2: Two years later, the camp of the Swedish army at Wallhof, the
general's tent and kitchen nearby.
Episode 3: Three years later at an army camp.
Episode 4: Outside an officer's tent.
Episode 5: Two years later. In a devastated village.
Episode 6: Inside Mother Courage's tent.
Episode 7: On a highway, later.
Episode 8: A camp, a day later.
Episode 9: Fall, 1634, outside a half-demolished presbytery.
Episode 10: Later, on a highway.
Episode 11: January, 1636, beside a peasant house.
Episode 12: That night, same location.
THEMES: "And you go marching with the show / In step, however fast or slow / And rattle off your little song: / It won't be long. / And then the whole thing slides. / You think God provides -- / But you've got it wrong" (Mother Courage, 4).
A statue of Bertolt Brecht
Mother Courage and Her Children (album)
Gisela May as Mother Courage and director Manfred ...DRAMATIS PERSONAE:
Mother CourageSwiss Cheese, her younger son
Kattrin, her mute daughterThe Recruiter
Eilif, her eldest sonThe Sergeant
The CookAn Older Soldier
The GeneralA Peasant
The ChaplainThe Peasant's Wife
The Ordnance OfficerThe Young Man
Yvette PottierThe Old Woman
The Man With The Patch Over His EyeAnother Peasant
The Other SergeantThe Peasant Woman
The Old ColonelA Young Peasant
A ClerkThe Lieutenant
A Young SoldierSoldiers
A Voice
SYNOPSIS:
Episode 1: Mother Courage, a canteen wagon driver, and her children, Eilif,
Kattrin, and Swiss Cheese, approach a Recruiter and Sergeant with intent to sell
them something. The Recruiter, to Mother Courage's dismay, convinces Eilif to join the army. "If you want the war to work for you, you have to give the war its due" (Sergeant).
Episode 2: Two years later, Mother Courage finds Eilif again while she is attempting to sell a capon to...