The Mother Courage and Her Children: Critical Analysis

Introduction

The Mother Courage and her Children is a Germany play which was developed by Bertolt Brecht, a poet and writer in the year 1939. The play setting and background has been inspired by the Thirty Years’ War of the 17th century where enlisting and recruitment into the warfront was strained due to lack of motivation among the young generation to join the army forces. Given the level of fascism and rise of the Nazis in Germany, Brecht wrote the play as a response and negative reaction to the actions by the Germans against other nations such as the Poland (Brecht 2). With Anna Fierling as Mother Courage, the play rotates around the negative impacts of the European war especially the killings that led to loss of life and property. Further, it illustrates the consequences of trying to benefit from the war activities as seen with Mother Courage who ends losing all her children.

The play since its inception has seen adequate number of developments in its productions with several of these performances taking place at different locations. However, the most notable plays constituted the first one which took place in Zurich. The performance was done in 1941 by Leopold Lindtberg with Swiss musician Paul undertaking to work with Leopold to develop the concepts of the play (Brecht 4). The main character role for this first play was undertaken by Therese, a popular and outstanding character at the time. The development of the play was initiated after the movement of Brecht to the Europeans nations after fleeing his country in avoiding war and unrest.

The second most influential and renowned play production took place in Berlin in 1949. The conceptualization of the play involved Brecht wife and mistress, Helene, assuming the role of the main character, Mother Courage and later taking the role of guiding and directing the play. As such, the play was entirely a Brecht production with a little assistance from Paul Dessau, in developing the composition. With Helene’s costumes consisting of rags and pulling the cart across the stage, the play was an exact replica of the actual written works. A more recent production of play was done in the 2006 at Delacorte Theatre in New York. Developed by George Wolfe, he organized the character of Mother Courage lead by Meryl Streep and the role of the cook being developed by Kline Kevin. Described as a colloquial piece, this performance aimed to capture the modern audience by using themes relating to the contemporary world (Klimper and Jarrod 15). The concept development for my production shall depict the modern wars especially between the American Troops and the Afghanistan mercenaries or the Syrian wars in the attempt to acquire peace. Themed around demonstrating the effects of war, the play shall revolve around the associated consequences of war involvement.

Concept Design

With the original Brecht’s Mother Courage and her Children developing an allusion to the Thirty Years’ War, my concept shall be centred around the modern wars between the Unied States and Afghanistan talibans in the Afghanistan war which was initiated after the September 11 attacks in the United States soils. With the theme of depicting the consequnces and effects of war and attacks both in the United States and the Afghanistan countries respectively, the two nations are observed to have som much to gain and similarly lose in the event of continuity of the wars (Ubert 6). Further, given the endlessness of these wars, their effects are additionally seen to be massive leading to great loss of life, property, political instability and continued state of insecurity. Moreover, to bring the perspectives clearer to the modern audience, the theme of enabling a conspicuous correlation between the Thirty Years’ War, the Second World War and the modern wars between the American troops and the Afghanistan talibans, the continuity of wars and conflicts to the contemporary world shall be easily demonstrated. In addition, in the conceptualization of the play, the political aspect of the play shall be highlighted in order to spark the critical judgements and critiques of the audience, which was majorly the main aim of Brecht. As such, the political conformations and alignments of war shall be emphasized in the concept.

Costumes Design

Inspired by the need to show the developemnt of the war, the effects which include death, loss of life, instablity in economic realms and insecurities, costumes assumed for the characters shall seek to relate to their current situations and locations. As such, given the role of women in war times which has been characterized by their involvement as both mothers and first aid technicians, the role of Mother Courage shall be exhibited as she journeys through the various parts of the war ( Ubert 15). As a trader and a mother, her movements from one place to the other shall be characterized by use of torn and mismatched colors to showcase the period of the action where fashion was less developed. Further, for the characters enlisted into the army and the soldiers’ troops camouflage into their uniforms to match the modern troops shall be embraced. As such, for the commanders and alll other soldiers of the higher caliber, their uniforms would uniquely be sewn to depict their authority. For the other characters, patched up clothes from rough fabrics shall be used to relate with the war times and experiences.

Set Design

To develop the set environment for the play production, I have envisioned an atmosphere characterized by conflicts, wars and destruction. As such, given the continuity of the modern wars, I have opted to use a dilapidated scenery where buildings and structures have been destroyed and ravaged by the effects of war (Ubert 8). With the correlation to the Mother Courage, the set is characterized by the desire to survive with wars and destruction to the living structures being very prevalent (Ubert 10). Therefore, an environment of action composed of rusty, old paints and tarred buildings shall be utilized to depict the correct surroundings of the war as related from the Thirty Years’ War with the present wars between the American troops and the Afghanistan talibans.

Conclusion

The lighting design shall critically use less of color combinations in order to stick to Brecht’s use and assumption minimized lighting to match any mood changes or character expressions. Moreover, color coordination shall constitute simpler colors either green and blue to avoid possibilities of mismatching (Ubert 19). Therefore, as observed in the conceptualization, the Mother Courage and her Children will be alluded to the contemporary issues affecting the society with a theme of depicting how wars and conflicts affect communities negatively. The associated benefits and disadvantages of involvement in wars as witnessed in the Mother Courage shall also form the basis for concept development in the current political affairs.

Bibliography

1. Brecht, Bertolt. Brecht Collected Plays: 5: Life of Galileo; Mother Courage and Her Children. A&C Black, 2015.
2. Klimper, Robert, and Jarrod Walley. ‘Mother Courage and Her Children.’ (2017).
3. Ubert, Julia Ann. Mother Courage and her Children Scenography. Diss. University of Kansas, 2014.