Mother Courage and Her Children

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Mother Courage was first performed in Zurich in 1941 and is usually seen as Brecht's greatest work. Remaining a powerful indictment of war and social injustice, it is an epic drama set in the seventeenth century during the Thirty Years' War. The plot follows the resilient Mother Courage who survives by running a commissary business that profits from all sides. As the war claims all of her children in turn, the play poignantly demonstrates that no one can profit from the war without being subject to its terrible cost also.

This translation by Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Tony Kushner is contemporary and lively, with accessible and humour language, an easy conversational flow, sympathetic, understandable characters and humour. Kushner makes a classic play which is notoriously difficult to perform both stage and reader friendly. It was staged at the National Theatre directed by Deborah Warner and starring Fiona Shaw in September 2009.

Reviews

'Tony Kushner's sparky new translation' * Michael Billington, Guardian, 27.9.09 *
Tony Kushner's bouncy new translation of Brecht's greatest play' * Paul Taylor, Independent, 29.9.09 *
'The translation, by American playwright Tony Kushner, is fast-moving, articulate, and reaches the heart of Brecht's reasonings' * Paul Callan, Daily Express, 28.9.09 *
'Tony Kushner's wry, witty translation' * Fiona Mountford, Evening Standard, 28.9.09 *
'Tony Kushner's translation is zesty' * Kate Bassett, Independent on Sunday, 4.10.09 *

Author Bio

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. Tony Kushner is best known for his two-part epic, Angels in America: A Gay Fantasia on National Themes. His other plays include: A Bright Room Called Day, Slavs!, Hydrotaphia, Homebody/Kabul and the musical Caroline or Change for which he wrote book and lyrics, with music by composer Jeanine Tesori. In addition to Mother Courage, Kushner has translated The Good Person of Sezuan, Pierre Corneille's The Illusion, S.Y. Ansky's The Dybbuk and the English-language libretto for the children's opera Brundibar by Hans Krasa. He wrote the screenplays for Mike Nichols' film of Angels In America, and Steven Spielberg's Munich. Tony Kushner is the recipient of a Pulitzer Prize for Drama, an Emmy Award, two Tony Awards, three Obie Awards, an Oscar nomination, an Arts Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, among many others. Most recently, Caroline or Change received the Evening Standard Award, the London Drama Critics' Circle Award and the Olivier Award for Best Musical.