Bertolt Brecht’s play ‘Mother Courage and her Children’ which he wrote back in 1941 has lost none of its dramatic power.
As a bit of historical background Brecht wrote the play shortly before World War 2 as a warning to the Danes against war profiteering.
The play is set in the 17th century during the Thirty Years War which ravaged Germany. Mother Courage is Anna Fierling a middle aged woman serving with the Swedish army as a canteen woman, and with her wagon, drawn by her three children, tries to profit from the war whilst keeping her children out of it.
Mother Courage’s manipulative, sponging mentality brings her undone. She ends up losing each of her three children, Eilif, Swiss Cheese and Kattrin, because of the war.
The play’s final scene is one of the saddest in theatre. We see Mother Courage dragging her wagon around the stage, still haggling for business, doing the only thing she knows, though she has lost everything she loved.
Robyn Nevin’s production for the Sydney Theatre Company (STC) does Brecht’s great play justice. The production represents an impressive debut for the Sydney Theatre Company’s Actors Company, a brainchild of Ms Nevin’s. The STC’s Actors Company involves an ensemble of 12 actors who are contracted to work together full-time with the Company over a two year period, during which time they will stage seven productions.
Pamela Rabe gave a strong performance as Mother Courage, conveying the hardness and obstinacy of her character. She showed she had a strong voice, coping with Brecht’s songs, written in his inimitable direct style. The actors were supported by a group of four musicians, led by composer Alan John on accordion. There was also someone on stage, working a wind machine, which added atmosphere to the play. Ralph Myers set design was very effective.
Other stand-outs in the cast were John Gaden as the hypocritical chaplin, Colin Moody as the womanizing cook, and Hayley McElhinney as Courage’s mute daughter Kattrin. Hayley gets to play one of the most haunting scenes in the play, when the mute Kattrin passionately bangs her drum, at the cost of her life, trying to warn a nearby town of an impending attack.