Mother Courage and Her Children

Family tragedy, cutthroat economics, and power that wants nothing but more power. Spice it with classic vaudeville, German comedians, and American Screwball films of the 1930s and ’40s. The play defies genre and acting style, and it changes course on a dime.

Widely considered one of the great dramatic creations of the modem stage, Mother Courage and Her Children is Bertolt Brecht’s passionate and profound statement against war and, at the same time a tribute to the indomitable survival of the individual.

The design team led by Kennon Rothchild builds a traditional German beer garden in Irondale’s cavernous space complete with imported German beer and light fair creating an immersive world as “Mother Courage” Anna Fierling pulls her wagon of wares and her children through the blood and carnage of Europe’s religious wars. Battered by hardships and brutality, she makes her fortune by selling goods to the soldiers. The war exacts a price- as war always does- and Mother Courage‘s soaring profits come at the price of searing loss.

In the enduring figure of Mother Courage, Bertolt Brecht has created one of the most extraordinary characters in literature, housing a strong sense of self-preservation and impressive flexibility of character going through everything a human can endure.

Mother Courage and Her Children, Part III of Irondale’s Brecht in Exile series.

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