A play for our century
Mother Courage and Her Children
By Bertolt Brecht
Directed by David Ritchie
New Theatre, Newtown, Sydney
Until October 24
Review by Brendan Doyle
Fifty years ago, Bertolt Brecht was in Stockholm, exiled from his native Germany which was under the thumb of the Nazis. In 1933, Brecht's writings were banned in his homeland. In 1939, accommodated by a number of wealthy Swedish patrons, he wrote Mother Courage and Her Children, which many regard as his finest play.
To celebrate the centenary of the dramatist's birth, New Theatre has mounted a handsome, ambitious and moving production that does justice to one of the finest European works written for the stage.
Based on events during the Thirty Years War of 1618-1648 that ravaged much of Europe, the play tells the story of Anna Fierling, known as Mother Courage, who follows the troops around from battle to battle with her three children in her canteen wagon.
She survives by buying and selling anything from bread and vodka to bullets and bandages.
As the play opens, a sergeant, recruiting for the coming campaign in Poland, complains about the lack of organisation in the local villages. "What they could do with round here is a good war", he says. Mother Courage agrees with him, singing: "The blood they spill for you is red, sir. What fires that blood is my red meat."
Ironically, it is the sergeant who says to her, "You want to live off war and keep you and yours our of it, do you?".
But Mother Courage has no illusions about the fact that she is living off the war, nor that her moral position is full of contradictions. "They call me Mother Courage 'cause I was afraid I'd be ruined. So I drove through the bombardment of Riga like a madwoman with 50 loaves of bread in my cart."
Her son Eilif runs away to join the army. A year later, she meets him again and he boasts to an officer of having cut some villagers to pieces to get hold of their food. He has won a reputation as a brave, ruthless soldier.
Three years later Mother Courage is taken prisoner, but manages to bribe and cajole her way out of it.
Her second son, "stupid but honest" according to his mother, is killed by soldiers, ironically, for supposedly stealing a cash box.
Things get harder. She teams up with a Protestant chaplain who offers her some protection and continues to follow the troops. When her dumb daughter is disfigured after being assaulted by a soldier, she resignedly says that at least no other soldiers will look at her now.
Eventually she loses all her children to the war.
At the end of the play, having lost all that was dear to her, she goes on her way, still eking out a living as a parasite on a system of war and oppression of which she herself is a prime victim.
Complaining about the war, she nevertheless supports its continuation by living off it. In this compromising situation, she eventually goes too far. She tries to save her son's life by bribing an officer, but quibbles over the price too long; her son is shot.
She is full of contradictions, which makes her perhaps the most interesting of all Brecht's characters. Poor and powerless in a harsh world, she wants to keep her business and her children by playing her part in the war game.
Herein lies her tragedy. Like millions in the world today, she is trapped by an inhuman military regime into compromises that eventually destroy all that she loves.
Gertraud Ingeborg's performance in the title role is a tour de force. On stage for the full two and a half hours, she gives us an understated Mother Courage who takes on more reality and complexity as the play progresses: a subtle and nuanced characterisation.
The entire cast of 10, plus two musicians, deliver as fine an ensemble performance as Brecht would have wanted, thanks to David Ritchie's overall direction.
I'm glad set designer Tom Bannerman didn't skimp on the wagon, the central visual image of the play. Two huge movable screens are used to suggest house walls, mountains and other spaces.
Tony Youlden's lighting design creates subtle changes of mood, and the sounds of battle are frighteningly and deafeningly real.
I'm not sure about the music; I felt the show lost pace at times with the songs. The actors seemed to be having trouble with some of the more difficult melodies and rhythms. This will no doubt improve over time.
Highly recommended.