Actors, Directors, & Theater Professionals, German Drama - Literary Criticism

Brecht; Mother Courage and Her Children

Name: Brecht; Mother Courage and Her Children
Author: Peter Thomson
ISBN: 9780521597746

by Peter Thomson, Michael Robinson (Editor), Vivien Gardner

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Overview

This is the first comprehensive study in English of Brecht's Mother Courage in production. Peter Thomson provides a detailed account of Brecht's own production in 1949 and then explores how the play has been transmitted—from Joan Littlewood's production in 1956 to the Royal National Theatre in 1995. The book also examines interpretations by Judi Dench, Glenda Jackson, and Richard Schechner, among others. Seminal productions from the continent are also analyzed and a final chapter examines the play's influence on among others, Peter Brook, and highlights the new urgency of the text in light of the wars in former Yugoslavia and Uganda.

Synopsis

This is the first comprehensive study of Brecht's Mother Courage. Peter Thomson locates the sources of the play in Brecht's own experience and heritage, and provides a detailed account of Brecht's own production with the newly formed Berliner Ensemble in 1949. Thomson then explores how the play has been transmitted in the English-speaking theatre from Joan Littlewood's production with the Theatre Workshop Company in 1956 to the Royal National Theatre, with Diana Rigg as Mother Courage, in 1995. The book also examines such influential interpretations as those by William Gaskill, Judi Dench, and Glenda Jackson in the English theatre, and by Herbert Balu and Richard Schechner in America. Seminal productions in France and the Germanies are also discussed. A final chapter highlights the new urgency of the text in light of the wars in the former Yugoslavia, and closes with an account of a triumphant staging in Uganda.