No39
Mother
courage
BRECHT/ÕUNPUU/DESSAU/MÄNDLA
The
German playwright
Bertolt Brecht was a refugee living in exile in 1939. He sensed that
imminent war was in the air. Brecht was a sensitive person in terms
of society. His plays and poetry observed that human relationships
were becoming progressively more fragile. They perceived the
disintegration of the world into a thousand angry men already waiting
with spears in hand. Not for an idea, not for a dream, not even for a
slice of bacon do they stand – but rather for the wish to give in
to their instincts and cross the threshold of humaneness back into
the dark cave.
One of Brecht’s most important plays, Mother Courage tells us the story of a merchant who is also a mother of three children who are approaching adulthood. They find themselves in the tumult of war in an imaginary 17th century. The mother must make choices. She always wishes to choose survival but ends up with death every time. War is raging, rules and the world are upside down. Characters, who are a combination of insanity, comedy, brutality and epicurism, emerge around her. The war chariot rides onward, fuelled by Mother Courage’s unflagging business sense and accompanied by the songs and dances of Courage and her entourage, all of them together looking towards where our sun is setting for the last time.
Text Bertolt Brecht
Director Veiko Õunpuu
Art Director Kairi Mändla
Music Paul Dessau, Ülo Krigul
Dramaturg Eero Epner
On stage Marika Vaarik, Jarmo Reha, Rea Lest, Simeoni Sundja, Gert Raudsep, Rasmus Kaljujärv, Helena Pruuli, Jörgen Liik
Premiere on October 22, 2016
Duration is three hours and 30 minutes, with one intermission.