Mother Courage Resource Pack - English Touring Theatre
Mother Courage Resource Pack - English Touring Theatre
Mother Courage Resource Pack - English Touring Theatre
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25 Short Street<br />
London<br />
SE1 8LJ<br />
T: 020 7450 1982<br />
E: education@ett.org.uk<br />
Poem 2<br />
Cast/creative team and introduction 3<br />
Scene synopsis 4<br />
Director’s notes 9<br />
Demystifying Brecht 13<br />
Translator’s interview 16<br />
Actor’s interview 18<br />
Assistant Director’s rehearsal diary 20<br />
Designer’s interview 23<br />
Costume designer’s interview 25<br />
Discussion points 27<br />
Exercises 27<br />
Chronicle 30<br />
Further reading 32<br />
Views expressed in this pack are not necessarily those of ETT<br />
EDUCATION RESOURCE PACK FOR ETT’S 2006<br />
TOURING PRODUCTION<br />
DIRECTOR Stephen Unwin<br />
TRANSLATION Michael Hofmann<br />
SONGS John Willett<br />
EDUCATION ASSOCIATE Anthony Biggs<br />
SUPPORTED BY THE ERNEST COOK TRUST
THE STORY OF MOTHER COURAGE<br />
There once was a mother<br />
<strong>Mother</strong> <strong>Courage</strong> they called her<br />
In the Thirty years’ war<br />
She sold victuals to soldiers.<br />
The war did not scare her<br />
From making her cut<br />
Her three children went with her<br />
And so got their bit.<br />
Her first son died a hero<br />
The second and honest lad<br />
A bullet found her daughter<br />
Whose heart was too good.<br />
Bertolt Brecht (1898 – 1956)<br />
2
MOTHER COURAGE AND HER CHILDREN<br />
THE CAST<br />
<strong>Mother</strong> <strong>Courage</strong> DIANA QUICK<br />
Kattrin JODIE MCNEE<br />
Swiss Cheese YOUSSEF KERKOUR<br />
Eilif SAMUEL CLEMENS<br />
The Cook TOM GEORGESON<br />
The Chaplain PATRICK DRURY<br />
Yvette GINA ISAAC<br />
Sergeant/Armourer/Ensign BARRY MCCORMICK<br />
Rectruiter/Old Colonel/Farmer MICHAEL CRONIN<br />
General/Clerk WALE OJO<br />
Sergeant/Young Man DANIEL GOODE<br />
Young Soldier/Farm Boy GORDON TAGGART<br />
Old Woman/Farmer’s Wife JANET WHITESIDE<br />
All other parts played by members of the company<br />
THE CREATIVE TEAM<br />
DIRECTOR Stephen Unwin<br />
SET DESIGNER Paul Wills<br />
COSTUME DESIGNER Mark Bouman<br />
LIGHTING DESIGNER Malcolm Rippeth<br />
ORIGINAL MUSIC Matthew Scott<br />
SOUND DESIGNER Dan Steele<br />
CASTING DIRECTOR Ginny Schiller<br />
ASSISTANT DIRECTOR Jamie Harper<br />
ASSISTANT COSTUME DESIGNER Mia Flodquist<br />
PRODUCER Rachel Tackley<br />
This production opened at the Forum <strong>Theatre</strong>, Malvern on 5 th October 2006.<br />
INTRODUCTION<br />
Welcome to this ETT resource pack which supports our current tour of <strong>Mother</strong> <strong>Courage</strong>. For all those students<br />
(and some teachers) who are studying Brecht for the first time, and for others that have been sufficiently<br />
alienated by talk of his verfremdungeffekt, please be assured that this is not an essay on Brechtian dogma. It<br />
is a practical pack, designed to give you both an understanding of Brecht’s writing and his theories, and also<br />
the process that we went through to create this production.<br />
My guiding reference for writing this pack has been Stephen Unwin, and I have freely plundered from his<br />
book: A Guide to the Plays of Bertolt Brecht, which I would urge you to read. The pack also contains<br />
interviews with some of our creative team as well as a rehearsal diary and photographs. The questions and<br />
discussion points should help you to unlock the heart of this great play, and are designed as much for the<br />
rehearsal room as the classroom.<br />
This pack is certainly not all encompassing, and I have included a list of further reading at the end for those<br />
who want to find out more about this remarkable man and his work. If you have any comments or questions<br />
about this pack or indeed the production, please email me at education@ett.org.uk I look forward to hearing<br />
from you.<br />
Anthony Biggs<br />
Education Associate<br />
3
SCENE SYNOPSIS<br />
This synopsis is based on Brecht’s own notes which he had compiled, along with a model book of<br />
photographs taken by his collaborator Ruth Berlau from the 1949 Berlin production. During our rehearsals<br />
Stephen Unwin made extensive use of them, as he said: ‘Trying to stage the play without looking at the<br />
model book would be like performing Beethoven without heeding the tempi’.The photographs below are of a<br />
1:25 scale model-box constructed by designer Paul Wills.<br />
1. The business woman Anna Fierling, known as <strong>Mother</strong> <strong>Courage</strong>, encounters the Lutheran Swedish army.<br />
Recruiters are roaming the country looking for young men to join their army. <strong>Mother</strong> <strong>Courage</strong> introduces her<br />
family to a Sergeant, and tells him that her three children (Eilif, Kattrin and Swiss Cheese) all have different<br />
fathers from different war zones around Europe. When she sees that her sons are listening to the recruiters,<br />
she predicts that the Sergeant will meet an early death by getting him to draw a piece of paper with a black<br />
cross out of his helmet. To make her children afraid of the war, she has them draw black crosses as well.<br />
Distracted by small business deal with the Sergeant, she loses her brave son to the army Recruiting Officer.<br />
2. At the fortress of Wallhof, <strong>Mother</strong> <strong>Courage</strong> meets her brave son again.<br />
<strong>Mother</strong> <strong>Courage</strong> sells her goods at exorbitant prices in the Swedish army camp. While driving a hard bargain<br />
over a capon (a type of chicken) with an army cook, she overhears the Swedish General bringing a young<br />
soldier into his tent and praising him for his bravery. <strong>Mother</strong> <strong>Courage</strong> recognises that the young soldier is her<br />
lost son, Eilif. The General demands that the Cook provide a good meal for Eilif to reward him for his heroic<br />
deeds. <strong>Mother</strong> <strong>Courage</strong> takes advantage of the situation and demands a high price for her capon. Eilif does a<br />
dance with his sword and his mother answers with a song. Eilif hugs his mother and gets a slap in the face<br />
for putting himself in danger with his heroism.<br />
Scene 2: <strong>Mother</strong> <strong>Courage</strong> can<br />
overhear her son inside the<br />
tent, boasting to the General<br />
3. <strong>Mother</strong> <strong>Courage</strong> switches from the Lutheran to the Catholic camp and loses her honest son Swiss Cheese.<br />
<strong>Mother</strong> <strong>Courage</strong> sells ammunition to the army on the black market. She serves alcohol to the camp whore,<br />
Yvette, and warns her daughter (who cannot speak) not to get involved with men. While <strong>Courage</strong> flirts with<br />
the Cook and the Chaplain, dumb Kattrin tries on the whore’s hat and shoes. A surprise attack from the<br />
Catholic army leads to <strong>Courage</strong> and her family joining the Catholic army camp. Swiss Cheese is arrested<br />
because he is a Paymaster in the Lutheran Army. <strong>Mother</strong> <strong>Courage</strong> mortgages her cart to Yvette in order to<br />
raise money to buy Swiss Cheese’s release. <strong>Courage</strong> haggles for too long over the amount of the bribe, and<br />
hears the volley of bullets that kills Swiss Cheese. For fear of getting in further trouble with the Catholic Army,<br />
<strong>Courage</strong> denies that she knows her son when she is shown his dead body.<br />
4
4. The Song of the Great Surrender<br />
Scene 3: <strong>Mother</strong> <strong>Courage</strong><br />
removes the washing and<br />
takes down the flag when the<br />
Catholic army attacks<br />
<strong>Mother</strong> <strong>Courage</strong> is sitting outside the Captain’s tent; she has come to put in a complaint about damage to her<br />
cart. A clerk advises her not to make a fuss as it may result in more trouble for her. A young soldier appears<br />
to make a complaint but <strong>Mother</strong> <strong>Courage</strong> dissuades him. She sings the ‘Song of the Great Surrender’.<br />
<strong>Courage</strong> also learns from the lesson she has given the young soldier and leaves without having put in her<br />
complaint<br />
5. <strong>Mother</strong> <strong>Courage</strong> loses four officers’ shirts and dumb Kattrin finds a baby.<br />
Scene 4: Outside the<br />
Captain’s tent, the damaged<br />
cart behind. <strong>Courage</strong> is sitting<br />
on the bench. The young<br />
soldier enters from the left.<br />
After a ferocious battle, <strong>Courage</strong> tries to stop the Chaplain from taking her officers’ shirts to bandage<br />
wounded peasants. Kattrin is frustrated by her mother’s reluctance to donate her possessions and threatens<br />
to hit her. Kattrin risks her life to save an infant from a building that has been destroyed by fire. <strong>Courage</strong><br />
laments the loss of her shirts and snatches a stolen coat from a soldier who has taken some of her alcohol.<br />
Kattrin rocks the baby in her arms.<br />
5
6. Prosperity has set in, but Kattrin is disfigured.<br />
Scene 5: The edge of the<br />
burning house, smoke drifting<br />
in from the left. The officer’s<br />
shirts are in the cart, and the<br />
plank of wood Kattrin uses to<br />
threaten her mother with is<br />
visible behind the house.<br />
<strong>Mother</strong> <strong>Courage</strong> has grown prosperous and takes stock of all the goods she has to sell. As the funeral march<br />
for the catholic general Marshal Tilly passes by, <strong>Mother</strong> <strong>Courage</strong> and the Chaplain talk about how long the<br />
war will continue. When Kattrin is sent to buy merchandise, <strong>Mother</strong> <strong>Courage</strong> declines the Chaplain’s proposal<br />
of marriage and insists that he should chop firewood. Kattrin returns having been attacked and permanently<br />
disfigured by some soldiers. <strong>Courage</strong> tries to console her by giving her Yvette’s red shoes but she rejects the<br />
gift. <strong>Courage</strong> curses the war.<br />
7. <strong>Mother</strong> <strong>Courage</strong> at the peak of her business career.<br />
Scene 6: Inside <strong>Mother</strong><br />
<strong>Courage</strong>’s tent, with a<br />
makeshift bar in the centre.<br />
The funeral procession<br />
passes behind.<br />
<strong>Mother</strong> <strong>Courage</strong> has corrected her opinion of the war and sings its praises as a good provider.<br />
6
8. Peace threatens to ruin <strong>Mother</strong> <strong>Courage</strong>’s business. Her dashing son performs one heroic deed too many<br />
and comes to a sticky end.<br />
<strong>Courage</strong> and the Chaplain hear a rumour that peace has broken out. The Cook reappears and criticises the<br />
Chaplain for advising <strong>Courage</strong> to buy more supplies. Yvette arrives with a manservant having become a rich<br />
widow and reveals that the cook is her former lover and womaniser Puffing Piet. <strong>Mother</strong> <strong>Courage</strong>’s dashing<br />
son, Eilif, is arrested and executed for looting a peasant woman’s house, a crime that brought him rewards<br />
during the war. The peace comes to an end, and <strong>Courage</strong> leaves the Chaplain and follows the Lutheran<br />
Swedish army with the Cook.<br />
9. Times are hard, the war is going badly. On account of her daughter, she refuses the offer of a home.<br />
The Cook has inherited a tavern in Utrecht, but refuses to take Kattrin along. Overhearing this, Kattrin packs<br />
her bundle in preparation to go and leaves a message for her mother. <strong>Mother</strong> <strong>Courage</strong> stops her from<br />
running away and they leave together without the cook, who goes to Utrecht on his own.<br />
10. Still on the road<br />
<strong>Mother</strong> and daughter hear someone in a peasant house singing the ‘Song of Home’<br />
11. Dumb Kattrin saves the city of Halle<br />
A surprise attack is planned by the Catholic army on the city of Halle. Catholic soldiers force a young peasant<br />
to show them the pathway to the city. The peasant and his wife tell Kattrin to join them in praying for the<br />
safety of it’s people. Kattrin climbs up on the barn roof and beats a drum to awaken the city. The soldiers<br />
offer to spare the life of her mother if she stops drumming, but she continues. They then threaten to destroy<br />
the cart but she continues to drum. In the end, the soldiers shoot her dead.<br />
12. <strong>Mother</strong> <strong>Courage</strong> Moves on<br />
Scene 11: Outside the<br />
peasant’s cottage Kattrin<br />
climbs on to the roof to beat<br />
her drum, and she hoists the<br />
ladder after her.<br />
The peasants have to convince <strong>Courage</strong> that Kattrin is dead. She sings a lullaby for her daughter. <strong>Mother</strong><br />
<strong>Courage</strong> pays for Kattrin’s burial and receives the condolences of the peasants. Alone, <strong>Mother</strong> <strong>Courage</strong><br />
harnesses herself to the empty cart. Still hoping to get back into business, she follows the ragged army.<br />
7
The front cloth: Picasso’s<br />
Colombe Au Soleil, which<br />
depicts the dove of peace<br />
rising over the broken<br />
weapons of war. As mother<br />
courage pulls off the cart at<br />
the end, this was the final<br />
image of the production.<br />
8
DIRECTOR’S NOTES<br />
by Stephen Unwin<br />
A <strong>Theatre</strong> for the Modern World<br />
Stephen founded <strong>English</strong> <strong>Touring</strong> <strong>Theatre</strong> in 1993, and has directed over fifty<br />
professional theatre productions. He is also the author of a number of books on the<br />
theatre, and the following section is adapted from his book A Guide to the Plays of<br />
Bertolt Brecht published by Methuen. Details on how to obtain a copy can be found at<br />
the back of the pack.<br />
As well as writing some of the most remarkable plays of modern times, Brecht revolutionised the art of the<br />
theatre itself. Like all the best playwrights – Shakespeare, Molière, Ibsen – he was a practical man of the<br />
theatre. He understood how the theatre worked and was committed to making it into a relevant, provocative<br />
and dynamic art form.<br />
German artistic life has always had a tendency towards intellectual pronouncements and Brecht’s own<br />
theoretical bent needs to be seen as part of this tradition. It should be stressed, however, that Brecht was<br />
highly sceptical of abstraction and it is unfortunate that this most tactile and sensuous of playwrights is so<br />
often caricatured as an incomprehensible intellectual with his head in the clouds. His experimentation did<br />
not take place in isolation and was part of a much broader attempt to create a new kind of theatre, capable<br />
of reflecting the ‘dark times’; furthermore, many of his ideas were drawn from elsewhere, above all<br />
Shakespeare and other classical writers. In other words it is essential to place Brecht’s various theoretical<br />
pronouncements, alienation effect’, ‘epic theatre’, ‘Gestus’ and so on, in context, and take them with a pinch<br />
of salt.<br />
Brecht was determined that the ‘audience shouldn’t hang up its brain with its coat and hat’; he wanted to<br />
create a kind of theatre that could not only reflect reality but help to change it and argued that poetry,<br />
character, wit, music, design, and theatricality – everything – should be used to realize this all-important goal:<br />
The modern theatre mustn’t be judged by its success in satisfying the audience’s habits but<br />
by its success in transforming them. It needs to be questioned not about its degree of<br />
conformity with the ‘eternal laws of the theatre’ but about its ability to master the rules<br />
governing the great social processes of our age; not about whether it manages to interest<br />
the spectator in buying a ticket – i.e. in the theatre itself – but about whether it manages to<br />
interest him in the world.<br />
9
ABOUT THE PLAY<br />
Brecht did most of the work on <strong>Mother</strong> <strong>Courage</strong> and her Children in Sweden in 1939, during the first few<br />
months of the Second World War:<br />
As I wrote I imagined that the playwright’s warning voice would be heard from the stages of<br />
various great cities, proclaiming that he who would sup with the devil must have a long<br />
spoon. This may have been naïve of me, but I do not consider being naïve a disgrace. Such<br />
productions never materialised. Writers cannot write as rapidly as governments can make<br />
war, because writing demands hard thought.<br />
Brecht’s instinct for prophecy was never more acute.<br />
<strong>Mother</strong> <strong>Courage</strong> is set during the Thirty Years War, the extraordinarily complex and wide-ranging religious<br />
wars that swept across Central and Northern Europe from 1618 and were only ended by the Treaty of<br />
Westphalia of 1648. Over the course of the play, <strong>Mother</strong> <strong>Courage</strong> change sides twice, from the Protestant<br />
Swedish army to the Catholic forces of the Holy Roman Empire, and back again.<br />
<strong>Mother</strong> <strong>Courage</strong><br />
Anna Fierling (nicknamed <strong>Mother</strong> <strong>Courage</strong>) earns her living by driving a cart from camp to camp, flogging<br />
boots, rum, sausages and pistols to the soldiers, striking bargains, lying and cheating, and sometimes even<br />
thriving. She is a formidable operator, who can deal with anything that is put in her way. She is<br />
unsentimental, canny and shrewd. She is one of the ‘little people’, for whom religion and ideology are alien,<br />
and her aim, above all, is to find a way of surviving.<br />
<strong>Mother</strong> <strong>Courage</strong> is deeply contradictory. Towards the end of scene six she speaks about how it is a ‘long<br />
anger’ that is needed, not a short one; this, she hints, is the anger that changes the world. Then, not long<br />
after, when her business starts up again, she loses that insight and sets out once more to earn a living. The<br />
challenge that Brecht presents is that he has written a character of tremendous human interest and insists<br />
that we are critical of her. What he is asking is similar to the Christian notion of hating the sin but loving the<br />
sinner: Brecht wants us to admire her toughness and shrewd wit, while criticising her for not recognizing the<br />
contradiction she embodies. The facts is <strong>Courage</strong> lives off the war that surrounds her and she feeds it, and<br />
our understanding of this is fundermental to the play’s purpose.<br />
Her Children<br />
Diana Quick as <strong>Mother</strong> <strong>Courage</strong><br />
It is sometimes forgotten that the play’s full title is <strong>Mother</strong> <strong>Courage</strong> and her Children and Eilif, Swiss Cheese<br />
and Kattrin play a crucial role. Eilif, her elder son, is strong and dashing; but he is too brave for his own good<br />
and is shot for doing exactly the same thing in peacetime – breaking into a peasant’s house – that won him<br />
praise and promotion in the war. He second son, Swiss Cheese, is a simple soul: honest, reliable and stupid.<br />
His decision to hide the regimental cash box seems sensible at the time but leads to his early death, and his<br />
mother’s refusal to acknowledge his dead body is one of the most chilling moments in the play. <strong>Courage</strong>’s<br />
daughter Kattrin is one of Brecht’s most inspired creations: in a world gone mad, the guardian of goodness is<br />
dumb, resorting in crisis to wild gesticulations and banging a drum. Her death is the play’s astounding<br />
climax.<br />
10
Other Characters<br />
Kattrin (Jodie McNee) on the front of the cart<br />
There are three other important characters. Firstly, the Cook, whose conversations with <strong>Courage</strong> are as<br />
intimate as the play gets. With their experience of suffering, their pragmatism and materialism, the two are<br />
perfectly matched and their budding romance is brilliantly drawn. The Cook’s offer to take <strong>Courage</strong> to Utrecht<br />
is not cynical, nor is his refusal to take Kattrin cruel; <strong>Courage</strong>’s decision to turn him down is, in the context of<br />
the war, a terrible mistake. The Chaplain, too, has an important role. He is at his best in time of war, when<br />
high morals take second place to necessity; in peacetime, however, he is sanctimonious and hypocritical. As<br />
usual in Brecht, it is not religion which is being satirised; it is its double fstandards and denial of material<br />
reality. Finally, Yvette’s story is one of the most extraordinary in the play: she is transformed from a pitiful<br />
camp whore into the wife of an old Colonel and lady of leisure. Her cynicism is matched by her decency and<br />
she uses the one thing she has – her body – to escape the squalid life in which she started.<br />
The world of the play<br />
The greatness of the play, and the reason why it is one of Brecht’s most enduring masterpieces, lies in<br />
something more than its astonishingly well drawn characters, and its passionately held insights. For, like<br />
Shakespeare, Brecht’s historical imagination, coupled with his startling dramatic technique, creates the<br />
illusion of an entire world, caught in a terrifying and endless struggle between two sets of interchangeable<br />
masters, disguising themselves as different religions, but supported by the very people whose participation –<br />
and suffering – keep the war going. The result is a twentieth-century riposte to the classical drama of kings<br />
and queens, a history ‘written from the bottom up’, and Brecht focuses in detail on real people – soldiers,<br />
peasants, tradesmen, prostitutes and even generals – finding ways of feeding themselves and trying to<br />
survive the insanity which surrounds them. His characters are often distorted and dehumanized by the world<br />
in which they live, but they are astonishingly true to life and recognizable.<br />
Scene 6: The Chaplain (Patrick Drury) and the<br />
Clerk (Wale Ojo) play draughts inside <strong>Mother</strong><br />
<strong>Courage</strong>’s tent.<br />
In his extensive notes on the play, Brecht said that <strong>Mother</strong> <strong>Courage</strong> was meant to show:<br />
that in wartime the big profits are not made by little people. That war, which is a<br />
continuation of business by other means, makes the human virtues fatal even to their<br />
possessors. That no sacrifice is too great for the struggle against war.<br />
11
Brecht believed that it was not enough to observe the world, it was necessary to change it, and the restrained<br />
edginess of this note goes straight to the heart of his intentions. What it does not express is the<br />
extraordinary realism of Brecht’s treatment. This realism tolerates no heroism and his analysis is merciless<br />
and unsentimental. At times his vision can seem too harsh and uncompromising, too difficult for an<br />
audience to be involved in the kind of ‘complex seeing’ that he was so keen to promote. However, when set<br />
against the background of a world collapsing into barbarism and war, <strong>Mother</strong> <strong>Courage</strong> is an extraordinary<br />
vision of the darkest moment of a very dark century. If the twentieth century saw the worst wars in history,<br />
Brecht’s play is drama’s greatest plea for peace – and against Fascism.<br />
12
DEMYSTIFYING BRECHT’S THEORIES<br />
The Alienation Effect<br />
From the outset, Brecht tried to create a kind of theatre which would encourage the audience to look at what<br />
was being presented in such a way that they would draw conclusions about the society in which they lived.<br />
The result was the ‘alienation effect’ (Verfremdungeffekt, sometimes translated as ‘estrangement’), one of<br />
the most misunderstood terms in the Brechtian vocabulary.<br />
Essentially, the alienation effect is achieved when the audience is encouraged to re-examine its<br />
preconceptions and to look at the familiar in a new way, with an interest in how it can and should be<br />
changed. This requires the actor to both inhabit his character and to remember that he is showing it to the<br />
audience. The danger with identification, Brecht argued, was that it prevented the actor from commenting on<br />
his character and stopped his performance from having an active purpose. It also prevents the audience<br />
from looking at the action with any degree of critical distance. Crucially, Brecht wanted his actors to be clear<br />
about what each scene – and each moment in each scene – was trying to show and made the understanding<br />
of the play’s intentions fundamental to the performance.<br />
To this end, Brecht asked his actors to tell their story with as much objectivity as possible: just as witnesses<br />
of a car crash or a murder or a football match might describe what they saw, drawing attention to the<br />
decisive moments, asking the listeners to look at what happened from a variety of perspectives, helping them<br />
come to their own judgments, so in rehearsal Brecht encouraged his actors to present their stories in the<br />
third person, prefacing each speech with ‘he said. . . she said. . .’ At other times he asked them to draw<br />
attention to particularly important moments in their story, adding ‘instead of responding like this, he<br />
responded like that’. These were all just exercises, but could have a powerful effect on the performance.<br />
Brecht often asked his actors to be involved in the practical presentation of the play – moving chairs, putting<br />
on new costumes, and so on – in full view of the audience. The effect of this is twofold: it helps the actor<br />
present each moment with clarity and allows him to demonstrate his own attitude to what is being shown.<br />
Epic <strong>Theatre</strong><br />
The second key notion in Brechtian theory is the ‘epic theatre’. By his own admission, Brecht took much of<br />
his inspiration for this from Shakespeare, whose plays are built out of a series of self-contained episodes and<br />
jump from location to location unconfined by the Aristotelian unities of time and place. Brecht’s work<br />
eschews the smooth inevitability of nineteenth century drama and he argued that only the epic theatre could<br />
express the bewildering disjointedness of modern life.<br />
The essential point of the epic theatre is that stories are told through a collage of contrasting scenes, whose<br />
content, style and approach are deliberately incongruous. A new kind of artistic unity is built out of such<br />
conflicting elements: interruptions are encouraged, text is set against action, music is given its own reality,<br />
scenery is cut away, unconnected scenes follow on from each other and so on. The point is that by exposing<br />
the audience to such diversity, they are encouraged to think independently and come to their own<br />
conclusions.<br />
Composer Matthew Scott rehearsing the<br />
overture with the actors<br />
It is a common mistake to imagine that the epic theatre refers only to large-scale historical dramas. Of<br />
course, Brecht was interested in writing such plays, and many of his plays cover an epic sweep of history and<br />
refer to actual events. However, the term describes a technique more than a genre: The <strong>Mother</strong> and Fear<br />
13
and Misery of the Third Reich are as much epic theatre as <strong>Mother</strong> <strong>Courage</strong>, Life of Galileo or The Caucasian<br />
Chalk Circle.<br />
Contradictions<br />
Brecht recognised that the key to drama lies in the conflict of opposites: one group wants one thing, another<br />
wants the opposite and the conflict between the two resolves itself in a third position. He felt that identifying<br />
such contradictions was an essential part of the theatre’s role.<br />
In the early work this is expressed in an insistent clash of registers: the sentimental followed by the cynical,<br />
the intellectual followed by the sensual, and so on. The effect is to relativise any argument that is pursued<br />
and to undermine any feeling that is expressed.<br />
In his mature work, however, this interest in contradiction and dialectic becomes more positive, and Brecht’s<br />
reading of Voltaire and classical Chinese philosophy makes it into an exercise in clear thinking: ‘on the one<br />
hand this, on the other hand that’ was, he felt, the approach that stood most chance of approximating to the<br />
truth of the world.<br />
All of Brecht’s greatest characters are constructed on contradictory principles: the ‘good woman’ Shen Teh<br />
has to become the bad man Shui Ta in order to survive; <strong>Mother</strong> <strong>Courage</strong> sacrifices her children in order to<br />
make a living; Galileo abandons pure scientific pursuit because of its implications; and Puntila, who is<br />
generous when drunk, reverts to brutality when sober. The point is that these many contradictions are not<br />
the result of poor characterisation – rather, they are realistic portraits of the way that real people behave in a<br />
contradictory world.<br />
‘Gestus’<br />
Brecht’s wife Helene Weigel, playing <strong>Mother</strong> <strong>Courage</strong><br />
(1949). Weigel had two children with Brecht, and was<br />
the co-founder of the Berlinner Ensemble<br />
One of the most difficult terms in the Brechtian vocabulary is gestus. At its most superficial, this is close to<br />
the <strong>English</strong> word ‘gesture’: the pointed finger, the shrugged shoulder, the turned back and so on. However,<br />
gestus also refers to something deeper: the physical embodiment of the relationships between people in<br />
society. Each gestus captures a particular set of interlocking attitudes and the sum total of these provides<br />
the audience with a chart of the society that is portrayed.<br />
The way that <strong>Mother</strong> <strong>Courage</strong>, all alone, hauls the cart round the stage for the last time, still looking for<br />
business, is a very particular gestus: a poor production of the play would make this image as pathetic as<br />
possible; Brecht’s by contrast, expressed a very troubling gestus, which showed a woman determined to<br />
continue living off the war, even though it had robbed her of everything.<br />
Telling the Story<br />
Dramatic storytelling shows that the things of the world are subject to change, and articulating that process<br />
of change and development – of history itself – is an essential element in the Brechtian theatre. Everything<br />
that takes place on stage should serve the story, and a production which does not tell the story is one that<br />
has failed to learn from Brecht’s example. It is interesting to see from his working notes just how important<br />
story outlines were to Brecht’s method of playwriting: much of his preparation consisted of pure story<br />
elements, free of opinion, character or meaning.<br />
Brecht was eager, however, to distinguish between traditional dramatic story telling – ‘this happens because<br />
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that happened’ – and the epic style – ‘this happens and then that happens’. His plays are built out of<br />
discrete, dynamic units of action, which deliberately do not flow one into the other and he writes with an<br />
almost Biblical simplicity which avoids smoothness and allows the joins to be visible<br />
Brecht’s emphasis on dramatic action deliberately avoids interpretation: it is the presentation of ‘unvarnished<br />
raw material’ that allows the audience to make its own connections. A space is created in which the<br />
audience can gain some sense of how the events came about, and how the society that made them can be<br />
changed.<br />
Playing one thing after another<br />
Scene 9: from the 1949<br />
Berlinner Ensemble<br />
production, designed by Ted<br />
Otto. Kattrin overhears the<br />
Cook telling <strong>Courage</strong> that she<br />
can’t bring her daughter to<br />
Utrecht. The half-curtain and<br />
the wire pulley device are<br />
clearly visible.<br />
A common criticism of Brecht’s plays is that they are long-winded and boring. One reason for this is Brecht’s<br />
emphasis on ‘playing one thing after another’. This means, above all, a way of acting and directing which<br />
allows the individual moments to be played for all their worth. This gives the audience the space to look at<br />
each element individually, instead of being swept along uncritically by the action. Brechtian productions tend<br />
to find detail in small social ‘gests’, whose inclusion illuminates the way that the society operates. These<br />
details – paying the servants, bowing to royalty and so on – should not be glossed over, but they can slow<br />
down the dramatic action as a result.<br />
In his finest work Brecht achieved an extreme economy of means – stripped of rhetoric, dramatically taut,<br />
simple and elegant – and they are at their best when played fast. One of the last things Brecht wrote was a<br />
note to the actors of the Berliner Ensemble on their first visit to London in August 1956:<br />
The <strong>English</strong> have long dreaded German art as sure to be dreadfully ponderous, slow,<br />
involved and pedestrian. . . So our playing must be quick, light and strong. By quickness I<br />
don’t mean a frantic rush: playing quickly is not enough, we must think quickly as well.<br />
We must keep the pace of our run-throughs, but enriched with a gentle strength and our<br />
own enjoyment. The speeches should not be offered hesitantly, as though offering one’s<br />
last pair of boots, but must be batted back and forth like ping-pong balls.<br />
It should be pinned up in the rehearsal room of anyone attempting to stage Brecht today.<br />
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TRANSLATOR’S INTERVIEW<br />
with Michael Hofmann<br />
Michael Hofmann is an award-winning writer and translator of plays and novels. He<br />
lives for most of the year in Germany, and speaks the language fluently. This is his first<br />
collaboration with ETT.<br />
What has been your process for translating <strong>Mother</strong> <strong>Courage</strong>?<br />
Nothing in any way out of the ordinary. I began at the beginning, and ended at the end. If there was<br />
something different about it, it was in the number of goings-over it received. In the ordinary course of things,<br />
when I translate books for publishers, they often don’t know what they’re going to get. It’s been utterly<br />
different working for Stephen Unwin. We had a wonderful back-and-forth over literally hundreds of things.<br />
How does work differ from previous translations?<br />
It seems to me people tend to have powerful preconceptions about Brecht. That’s the only way I can account<br />
for the way other versions don’t follow Brecht’s words and sentences – as though there was something a<br />
priori hopeless about doing that; to me, it would suggest it’s a priori the right thing to do! – but take lines and<br />
speeches and completely rewrite them. The major preconception is that Brecht is plain and utilitarian and<br />
even a little coarse. Clutching that, you come upon each sentence as a bag full of information to be<br />
conveyed, and you don’t scruple to rewrite it. That’s true even of John Willett, to some extent, but it’s<br />
powerfully true of the adaptations by various dramatists and also the version that (unfortunately!) gets played<br />
in America, by the dreadful H.R. Hays. To me, Brecht is the opposite, he is all style and intention. So I try to be<br />
very faithful. As far as I’m concerned, Brecht doesn’t give you cause to be anything else. I’ve never felt myself<br />
in the grip of such a powerfully controlling, organizing intelligence as when I translated The Good Person in<br />
1990.<br />
You are a native German speaker. Has that been a great help?<br />
Well, it’s the basis for my approach. Otherwise, I might well be driven to make some of it up! Seriously,<br />
there’s a great array of language in <strong>Mother</strong> <strong>Courage</strong>, the ranks and weapons and oaths. Proverbs or other<br />
forms of home-made truth. The regionalism of some of the speech – her speech. I think possibly this has the<br />
most verisimilitude of any of his plays. I mean Brecht isn’t going to bust himself to get Galileo’s Italy just right,<br />
much less a fantasy China with gods and tobacconists. The plays are always exemplary, to do with typical<br />
human behaviour, or probable human behaviour. Here, this behaviour is contrasted with or filtered through<br />
things you feel people might actually have said in 17 th century Germany, the time of the Thirty Years’ War. It<br />
doesn’t really matter – I think – but it does give this particular play some of its piquancy.<br />
What is different about translating a play rather than a novel?<br />
All my translating is for the inner ear anyway, novels, stories, etc. I like to test things by reading them aloud<br />
when I’m done. Compared to the theatre, though, that becomes rather metaphorical. It’s a great thrill to hear<br />
one’s words spoken in public. Beyond that, it’s Brecht, so we really aren’t talking naturalistic language. It’s a<br />
challenge thrown down to the actors. I don’t come from the theory side of it – anything but! – but translating<br />
Brecht has shown me what ‘V-effekt’ (alienation effect) and so on means. Everything comes out of the<br />
dramatic situation. That’s the underlying geological or meteorological or planetary truth. And then its<br />
reflection is shown on single people, characters, individuals, because that’s the way we understand things,<br />
not en masse. But the characters are not really individuals, they have something choric about them. They’re<br />
possibilities. I think Brecht does something like enlarging his people a thousandfold, and then shrinking them<br />
again, like a xerox, or something. But you can tell. They have something purified at the end in their outlines<br />
and interests, but also something tampered with. And you can feel that in the language. The characters know<br />
that speech is power, and they speak accordingly. And all the time they stand next to themselves in the most<br />
fascinating way. I picture them musing to themselves, hmm this is really good, and thinking they ought to<br />
write it down! <strong>Mother</strong> <strong>Courage</strong> says things that no one individual could possibly say, she talks in a sort of<br />
collage speech. That then becomes the actors’ problem, thank god!<br />
<strong>Mother</strong> <strong>Courage</strong> has been described as having a Shakespearean quality, would you agree?<br />
I don’t know that I would go beyond the pervasive intelligence of the speech and the speakers. Continual and<br />
vivid argument. To me, that’s what Shakespeare is too.<br />
How have you dealt with cultural references that would be incomprehensible to an <strong>English</strong>-speaking<br />
audience?<br />
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I think while it remains one of the piquant things about the play for a German audience – that, and the fact<br />
that you fast-forward 300 years, and find yourself in World War Two – I don’t think the play is reliant on these<br />
references. I think I’ve probably generalized most of them, I don’t know. But then the capon is still a capon.<br />
Brecht says the truth is always concrete. I’ve really tried not to oppose any of the tendencies of the play, or<br />
impose any of my own.<br />
There is a great deal of humour in the play. Does this translate well?<br />
If it is present in the <strong>English</strong>, then it will help the play, because humour does well in <strong>English</strong>, and <strong>English</strong><br />
audiences crave it. At the same time, it’s not <strong>English</strong> humour, not juicy humour, and not a distraction or a<br />
sweetener. The humour is very much to the point, and I think it’s a matter of symmetry, reflex, almost a<br />
diagrammatic humour. Like a kind of cerebral fencing. I don’t make it sound very funny, but it’s a tremendous<br />
thing, the opening scene, say, these upright recruiters complaining about the unscrupulous locals, who take<br />
the king’s shilling, as it were, but duck out of fighting. There’s a little taste of underlit wisdom about it. It<br />
reminds me of Brecht’s poem, “The Solution”, where he suggests the disappointed government ought to elect<br />
a new people.<br />
What is the significance of the songs?<br />
That’s a hard thing to say. Brecht plays always come with songs and poems. It’s part of their patchwork<br />
effect, partly it’s to do with the fact that they really want to give pleasure to people. Matthew Scott, our<br />
composer, said he thought they were to give people time to pause and take in what they’d seen.<br />
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ACTOR’S INTERVIEW<br />
with Michael Cronin<br />
Michael plays the Recruiter, The Old Colonel and the Farmer, and also narrates the<br />
introduction to each scene. He is a regular performer for ETT having previously appeared<br />
in 10 production including King Lear and The Cherry Orchard. He most recently played<br />
Polonius in Hamlet (national tour and West End).<br />
A good deal has been written about Brecht’s theories on theatre. Has this affected your aproach to <strong>Mother</strong><br />
<strong>Courage</strong>?<br />
The fact that Brecht took his work seriously enough to write theoretical essays about it at all makes him a<br />
particularly “un-<strong>English</strong>” phenomenon. I think it’s that word “seriously” that sets alarm bells ringing in some<br />
quarters. It would be hard not to be aware of this because, sadly, his theories are discussed more frequently<br />
than his plays are produced in this country. Maybe that’s the problem. We don’t see enough Brecht to know<br />
him well enough.What influenced me most as I approached this play was having seen the Berliner<br />
Ensemble’s production of “The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui” in the early Sixties and having….well, having never<br />
seen anything like it! It was an overwhelming experience. It made me laugh, and cry, and think…and it made<br />
me gasp with admiration for the actors’ skills in a way I never had before in a theatre. If that was what<br />
Brecht’s “theories” could achieve then I couldn't wait to see more of them and above all take part in them.<br />
It’s the practice that unwraps the theory. Because, in the end, the theory is devised not for itself but to<br />
achieve the plays in a theatre and in front of an audience. The theory is, above all, practical. And that goes for<br />
the “politics” too.<br />
The play is set during The Thirty Years War, and Brecht wrote it during The Second World War. Have you<br />
found it useful to research these periods?<br />
Yes, the play is set during a period of The Thirty Years War…remember it’s been going on when the play<br />
opens and it goes on after the play concludes…but it’s not “about” The Thirty Years War. I did read one or two<br />
history books for a broad outline. I think what astonished me most was realising just how much of Europe the<br />
various conflicts covered…from farthest Poland to Northern Italy…and proxy conflicts just about everywhere<br />
else on the margins. And the intensity of the fighting and the killing of thousands of civilians. Its unimaginable<br />
brutality. Unimaginable? Wrong word. Men committed those acts so they were capable of being imagined. As<br />
were the cruelties in Goya’s drawings of the Peninsula War and as were the unspeakable vilenesses we see<br />
in photos of Nazi atrocities. All wars bleed into one another. And the tills go on ringing. That is what war is no<br />
matter what particular gloss politicians or recruiting sergeants put on it. That’s one of the things Brecht is<br />
saying. It still needs saying. Today even more.<br />
You play a number of different characters in the play. How<br />
do you make them different without making them<br />
caricatures?<br />
Each character I play has a specific role, a job to do, in the<br />
scene in which he appears. But he is still an individual. All<br />
Brecht’s people are individuals no matter how many or how<br />
few words they speak. That’s important. That’s what stops<br />
them becoming merely mouthpieces. They are all complex<br />
unpredictable human beings….the situations they find<br />
themselves in may be overwhelming but they go on<br />
being…just that: human. My job is to show that as well as<br />
play the part required by the scene.<br />
You have worked with Stephen many times before. How has this rehearsal process differed from previous<br />
productions?<br />
I think this has been the most detailed rehearsal process I’ve ever been part of with Stephen or anyone else.<br />
Each moment of the play, literally, has to be understood, realised precisely and made clear, and offered to<br />
the audience. What is happening at any given time on that stage has to be absolutely clear….one thing at a<br />
time concretely realised. It’s the accumulation of those moments that give the play its power and makes<br />
Brecht’s contract with the audience so specific.<br />
Brecht’s theatre company was called the Berlinner Ensemble. How important is it to have a supportive<br />
company for this play?<br />
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I was once shown round the Berliner Ensemble’s theatre in Berlin and my lasting memory of that afternoon is<br />
the pride, the intensity of the pride, shown by everyone concerned, for the building and for the work they did.<br />
Hard to find outside of a company working together for long periods of time or in the very specific conditions<br />
then applying in East Berlin. But I think something as useful and strong can be found in actors’ feelings about<br />
the subject of the play they’re performing and their passion for what’s being said. It would be difficult to bring<br />
off “<strong>Mother</strong> <strong>Courage</strong>” with a cast of sabre-rattlers. Happily, that’s not the case with our company.<br />
19
ASSISTANT DIRECTOR’S REHEARSAL DIARY<br />
By Jamie Harper<br />
Rehearsal diary<br />
Jamie is the recipient of the National <strong>Theatre</strong>'s Cohen Bursary which<br />
will involve him working with ETT and the National <strong>Theatre</strong> Studio<br />
over the coming year. Following his directing training at LAMDA,<br />
Jamie won the 2006 JMK Director’s Award and directed 'A Lie of the<br />
Mind' at BAC in July.<br />
It’s Monday the 18 th of September and preparations for our production of <strong>Mother</strong> <strong>Courage</strong> are in full swing.<br />
We’ve been rehearsing for several weeks now and we’re just getting to the point where all the different<br />
elements of the work can begin to come together into a unified piece of theatre.<br />
Serving the play<br />
We started back on the 21 st of August (seems like a long time ago now!) with a week of text work. Stephen<br />
Unwin (Director) and Diana Quick (<strong>Mother</strong> <strong>Courage</strong>) got together to spend some time reading the play in<br />
detail to gain a firm grounding on <strong>Mother</strong> <strong>Courage</strong> as a character and the shape of the play overall. Much<br />
critical ink has been spilled on Bertolt Brecht’s politics, theory and practice but, fundamentally, we have<br />
focused on the undoubted quality of his play writing and worked to ‘serve the play’ in our production.<br />
As we began to think about ‘serving the play’ we referred frequently to the Model Book of Brecht’s production<br />
of <strong>Mother</strong> <strong>Courage</strong> for the Berliner Ensemble in 1949. The Model Book comprises the play text, photographs<br />
and detailed rehearsal and performance notes. These resources combine to provide a great insight into<br />
Brecht’s intentions when he staged the play and without wishing to slavishly adhere to the original we have<br />
played close attention to his aims in order to ‘serve the play’ as he intended it to be rendered.<br />
Contradiction<br />
In our second week, Diana was joined by the other members of the cast and we continued to read the play in<br />
detail. At this point Steve began introducing some of the key ideas which have formed the basis of his<br />
approach to directing the play. First and foremost, he articulated ‘Brechtian contradiction’. In Brecht’s view,<br />
realistic characters are influenced by contradictory impulses, and rather than being seen as a source of<br />
confusion these contradictions should be embraced. For example, <strong>Mother</strong> <strong>Courage</strong> is influenced by the<br />
contradictory impulses of caring for her children and caring for her business. We found that this contradiction<br />
was most apparent in Scene Three when she must decide whether to save her cart or her son Swiss Cheese.<br />
On the one hand, <strong>Mother</strong> <strong>Courage</strong> loves her son and wants to protect him, but on the other hand she must<br />
preserve her business and keep hold of her sources of capital in order to survive. Through reading the scene<br />
in detail, we saw that as a loving but also mercenary woman <strong>Courage</strong> is a powerful contradiction and her<br />
dilemma in this instance is hugely dramatic as a result of these contradictory impulses.<br />
Counter pointing<br />
In addition to introducing the principle of contradiction, Steve talked about Brecht’s technique of using<br />
counterpoints within scenes. Counter pointing essentially means the simultaneous presentation of different<br />
elements of action within the same scene. Scene Two is a good example of this technique as we are shown<br />
<strong>Mother</strong> <strong>Courage</strong> selling a capon to the Cook at the same time that Eilif drinks wine inside the General’s tent.<br />
Steve commented that the challenge in staging these counter pointed scenes lies in ensuring that the<br />
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audience watches the right action at the right time. For example, it would be very damaging to the scene if<br />
the wine drinking within the tent was allowed to draw the attention of the audience away from <strong>Courage</strong>’s<br />
conversation with the Cook.<br />
Knowing what you are showing<br />
The implication of this for the actors in the cast is that they must be aware of what the scene is intended to<br />
show at all times, and this principle of ‘knowing what you are showing’ has been fundamental to the process<br />
of rehearsing the play. For example, when we rehearsed the sequence in Scene Three when Kattrin tries on<br />
Yvette’s red shoes we discovered that the actor (Jodie McNee) must be careful not to pull focus from the<br />
discussion between <strong>Courage</strong>, the Cook and the Chaplain on the other side of the cart. In this counter pointed<br />
scene, we knew that we had to show a young woman discovering her femininity whilst also showing a<br />
subversive debate on the subject of the war. This balance was accomplished thanks to Jodie’s awareness of<br />
the need to be progressively less ostentatious as she struts back and forth in her new high heels so that the<br />
audience’s focus moves away from her to the political conversation on the other side of the cart. (Mission<br />
accomplished thanks to principle of ‘knowing what you are showing!!!’)<br />
Gestus<br />
Assistant Director Jamie<br />
Harper in rehearsals with<br />
actress Jodie McNee (Kattrin)<br />
Having spent two weeks reading the play and discussing the ideas contained in it, our focus in the early<br />
rehearsals was to establish a clear physical shape for each scene. Negotiating staging issues like blocking<br />
and prop business can at times seem like a boringly technical type of work but in the context of rehearsals for<br />
a Brecht play it is absolutely essential for a physical structure to be implemented in the early stages. Brecht<br />
wrote extensively on the importance of the ‘gestus’ (the physical manifestation of social relationships) and<br />
our production has been strongly focused on clarifying the relationships between characters through<br />
rigorously specific physical action. Again, Brecht’s Model Book was invaluable in this phase of the rehearsal<br />
process. Photographs from the Berlin production gave us an immediate physical sense of the action in any<br />
given scene. For example, in Scene Eight when Eilif is arrested, he is pictured being escorted onstage by a<br />
tightly knit squad of four soldiers. This informed our work on Scene Eight and we created our own squad of<br />
four soldiers, arranging their physical relationships with Eilif in such a way as to make his fear of imminent<br />
execution abundantly clear.<br />
One thing after another<br />
Once we had created the physical texture of the scenes, we began to look at the detail of the character action<br />
(i.e. – who is doing what to whom and why?) At this point Steve introduced another concept which has<br />
become one of our rehearsal room catchphrases: ‘Play one thing after another.’ The thought behind this<br />
phrase is that it is necessary to delineate and separately demonstrate the different impulses that motivate<br />
characters to act. Having discussed ‘contradiction’ in great detail we were all aware of the plurality of<br />
objectives that drive people to behave as they do; but in order to retain clarity in the action it’s important to<br />
show the divergent forces acting upon the characters independently of each other. For example, in Scene<br />
Five, <strong>Mother</strong> <strong>Courage</strong> is torn between the contradictory impulses of stopping her daughter from running into a<br />
burning building to save a baby and stopping the Chaplain from destroying her expensive officers shirts. This<br />
scene shows <strong>Courage</strong> operating in chaotic circumstances but for the scene to function effectively, the playing<br />
of it must be organised, focused and totally un-chaotic. In our rehearsals, we were careful to delineate<br />
<strong>Mother</strong> <strong>Courage</strong>’s attempt to stop Kattrin from going into the burning building from her subsequent attempt<br />
to stop the Chaplain from ‘scrimshandering’ with her shirts. Essentially, the actor (in this case, Diana Quick)<br />
must play ‘one thing after another’: she must show one action (save Kattrin) then clearly shift focus to show a<br />
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different action (save the shirts.) This may seem rather obvious but it is crucially important to play each<br />
separate element of the action clearly and fully rather allowing them to all get muddled in the midst of the<br />
melee!<br />
Conclusion<br />
Today it is the 18 th of September. We have two more weeks of rehearsal in which time the various elements<br />
of the production (text, staging, music and dance) will combine to produce a wonderful piece of theatre<br />
(fingers crossed!!) The truth is that putting on plays is an inexact science with lots of trial and error and equal<br />
potential for failure as well as success. In the case of <strong>Mother</strong> <strong>Courage</strong>, however, we have not only benefited<br />
from a superb team of creative and technical theatre practitioners but one of the leading forces in 20 th<br />
century drama. Bertolt Brecht laid down a blueprint for a particular form of theatre and we have approached<br />
this production with the attitude that his lucid innovations in play writing and theatre practice should be used<br />
to our advantage. The employment of Brecht’s ideas and techniques has been central to our rehearsal<br />
process and I have every confidence that if we can learn from the Master we stand every chance of serving<br />
his play with aplomb.<br />
22
DESIGNER’S INTERVIEW<br />
with Paul Wills<br />
What was your starting point for designing <strong>Mother</strong> <strong>Courage</strong>?<br />
Paul has designed productions for theatres such as the Royal Court and<br />
Sheffield Crucible and is the associate designer for the West End musical<br />
Guys and Dolls. This is his first collaboration with ETT.<br />
Stephen and I spent a long time working on the script and analysing what was really essential. We wanted to<br />
tell the story with only the minimum amount of 'stuff'. Once we had a model of the cart we started to look at<br />
various ideas in white card format until what we were left with was essentially a floor and a cyc.<br />
Brecht had strong ideas about design. How has this influenced you?<br />
Brecht had some strong ideas about theatre design. He believed the workings of the theatre should exposed,<br />
much like the sporting arena during a boxing match. He used naturalistic materials, but only what was<br />
absolutely necessary to tell the story.<br />
For our design we looked closely at The Model Book that Brecht created, and have attempted to reinvent<br />
some of his ideas. It is quite important to create 'pictures' on the stage that allow us to highlight various<br />
moments of action. The position of the cart is integral to every scene.<br />
Was it important to be historically accurate?<br />
A sketch for Scene 11 of <strong>Mother</strong><br />
<strong>Courage</strong> and her Children (1949<br />
Berlinner Ensemble). Décor is by<br />
Ted Otto who successfully<br />
translated the epic nature of<br />
Brecht’s plays to the stage. Set<br />
pieces consist only of what is<br />
needed to establish place, and the<br />
background is cyclorama. The<br />
scene depicted here is Kattrin’s<br />
death scene.<br />
Although we have set the play during the Thirty years war we opted to create a sense of period and age rather<br />
than be totally accurate.<br />
Are there any modern references in the design?<br />
The basic design is very modern. As an empty space it is clean lined and elegant. The Map has been digitally<br />
printed and yet gives us a strong sense of the period. With such an empty stage anything that enters the<br />
space gains a great deal of significance.<br />
23
What is the significance of the map?<br />
<strong>Mother</strong> <strong>Courage</strong>’s journey is very important as is the war that has been going on around her. With very little<br />
in the design to suggest the period and the events that were taking place we needed something that would<br />
help root it closer to the time. The map allowed us to do all these things as well as providing us with a<br />
beautiful backdrop to the action.<br />
The play takes place over a number of years. How does the design accomodate this?<br />
We dress the cart throughout the production. At times it becomes war-torn, at others it is festooned with new<br />
wares. This will tell us a story about the position of <strong>Courage</strong> at any time. The other design elements will play<br />
an important role in this: costume lights and sound will all help to move <strong>Courage</strong> through the years.<br />
What are the considerations for a touring set?<br />
Technical Drawing of<br />
<strong>Mother</strong> <strong>Courage</strong>’s cart<br />
That it all fits in a lorry and preferably not be made from glass! It is very important to create a design that is<br />
flexible enough to fill the theatres that it goes to. A design that fits snug in one venue will feel lost in<br />
another. The simplicity of this design allows it to expand and contract. Some venues have rakes and with<br />
the cart this was a major consideration so we decided to anti rake those venues.<br />
How do the lighting and costume complement your design?<br />
With such a simple space costume brings colour and life to the space as well as a greater sense of period.<br />
Lighting allows us to change the atmosphere dramatically as well as create moments of intimacy when<br />
needed.<br />
Technical Drawing of cart<br />
showing measurements<br />
24
COSTUME DESIGNER’S INTERVIEW<br />
with Mark Bouman<br />
When and how do you begin your design process?<br />
Mark has designed extensively for ETT including<br />
Romeo and Juliet and The Seagull. He most recently<br />
designed costumes for The Old Country and Hamlet<br />
(national tours and West End).<br />
I begin by reading the script, usually as soon as a director has asked me to do the show, then I'll do back<br />
ground research, about the author, circumstances of the play, time it was written in etc. The I start<br />
collecting visual images that are linked to the characters in the play. for period productions this can be<br />
paintings, etchings of pictures of still existing period costumes etc. The visual images can vary hugely,<br />
sometimes it's good to even look into the unusual area's which help you to get an inside to the look of the<br />
play.<br />
What have been your major influences for <strong>Mother</strong> <strong>Courage</strong>?<br />
I looked at paintings of the period, some of the northern European 17th Century realist painters are quite<br />
useful; Jan Steen, Frans Hals, or earlier painters like Breugel are good to see what the 'everyday' people<br />
looked like. Lots of paintings of that period are either royalty of rich merchants, but in this case I needed,<br />
the poor and the travellers or pub scenes. The I did more research into the armies of northern Europe<br />
around 1630-40's and what they wore (not always uniforms as we know it!)<br />
The Cook’s costume<br />
Although the play is set in the Thirty Years War, has it been important to be historically accurate?<br />
To a certain degree - yes, but if you know your history really well, you'll see that we've been playful with the<br />
accuracy. Sometimes it's for artistic reasons or for reasons to make age or poverty clear to an audience that<br />
you choose to be less driven by what is right historically but more what looks and feels right for that<br />
character.<br />
25
How does your working process with Stephen differ from other directors?<br />
I've worked a lot of times before with Stephen, which means we've got a 'short-hand' in talking about style<br />
and characterisation. I know Steve well, both he and I love character costumes and are not so much style or<br />
trend driven. therefore our meetings are usually short and to the point, we go through each character briefly<br />
just to see if we've got the same idea about them, Steve will let me how he sees this person and perhaps we<br />
discuss colours of the costume. Once I get into fitting stage I'll show Stephen photo's of the fittings to see if<br />
he likes the way I'm going or if he feels different about the characters.<br />
How do your designs reflect the changes in the characters’ fortunes?<br />
Especially in this play we have what's called lots of 'broken-down' costumes, costumes that look and feel like<br />
the person has worn them for years. They are (artificially) made to look dirty, old and threadbare. So with<br />
certain characters you'll really see them getting poorer by the way their clothes look worn and broken down<br />
from scene to scene. With <strong>Mother</strong> <strong>Courage</strong> her self its like a wave, sometimes he has money and has<br />
acquired jewellery for instance, sometimes she has nothing left and he overcoat has got holes in an look like<br />
it's about to fall apart.<br />
Some of the actors play a number of different parts. How does this affect your designs?<br />
<strong>Mother</strong> <strong>Courage</strong>’s costume<br />
When there is a lot of doubling amongst the actors you make sure that each look for an actor looks<br />
sufficiently different from the one before. You'll do this by the shapes of the clothes but also by making them<br />
wear hats / bonnets and even wigs or facial hair if that is appropriate. Usually each different character the<br />
actor plays will have it's own specific characterful look, so you give the audience enough of a clue that this is<br />
a totally different person, and not the same guy as before in a different jacket. Some thing you can leave up<br />
to the actor as well, they way they talk, stand / slough etc.<br />
What has been the biggest challenge when designing <strong>Mother</strong> <strong>Courage</strong>?<br />
In this case some of the costumes are hired from costume hire places and some will be specifically made for<br />
the show. I suppose the biggest challenge is to make sure all costumes look like they are from the same<br />
coherent 'world' You don't want to feel like some look much too theatrical next to some which are nicely<br />
characterful. When you make a period costume from scratch, its important that the modern fabrics get a<br />
period feel about them, so you dye them and paint into them or take the sharp modern colour out of them<br />
until they are believable part of the poor dirty 'world' we want to create as being the 1630's<br />
26
DISCUSSION POINTS<br />
These discussion points are for the rehearsal room as well as the classroom, and bear in mind that there are<br />
no right answers, only healthy debate.<br />
<strong>Mother</strong> <strong>Courage</strong> is set nearly four hundred years ago and was written by a German during the Second World<br />
War. What makes it still relevant to a modern audience?<br />
Brecht didn’t name the play after a king or queen, but a street hawker. Why do you think he was interested in<br />
her story?<br />
<strong>Mother</strong> <strong>Courage</strong> constantly has to weigh up her instincts as a mother against her commercial decisions. Try<br />
to highlight some of these moments of contradiction in the play.<br />
<strong>Mother</strong> <strong>Courage</strong> tries so hard and yet loses everything she cares for. Why do you suppose people do things<br />
that are against their own self interests? Think of some examples from your own life.<br />
During the Gulf War the US and the UK continued to sell arms to Iraq, their supposed enemy (N.G.O.<br />
commentator 11/02/00). Brecht said “in wartime the big profits are not made by the little people”. What<br />
information can you find to support this?<br />
“An estimated 300,000 child soldiers - boys and girls under the age of 18 - are involved in more than 30<br />
conflicts worldwide. They are used as combatants, messengers, porters, cooks and to provide sexual<br />
services. Some are forcibly recruited or abducted, others are driven to join by poverty, abuse and<br />
discrimination, or to seek revenge for violence enacted against themselves and their families.”<br />
http://www.unicef.org/protection/index_armedconflict.html<br />
Both Eiliff and Swiss Cheese are conscipted into the army. Find out what you can about this on-going<br />
problem.<br />
The play takes place over many years, in many different locations, with large gaps in time between scenes.<br />
Why do you think Brecht did this? What is the point of the songs and their positioning?<br />
When we go to the cinema or the theatre we often get lost in the story and imagine we are one of the<br />
characters. Why did Brecht want to combat this? How did he propose doing it?<br />
Brecht rewrote some of the play after the first production. For instance, he changed scene 1 so that <strong>Mother</strong><br />
<strong>Courage</strong> should be haggling over a belt buckle when her son Eiliff is taken away to fight. Why did he do this<br />
and what was he trying to achieve?<br />
The play suggests that there is no room for virtue in war. Brave Eiliff, Honest Swiss Cheese and<br />
Compassionate Kattrin all suffer because of their virtue. Do you agree with this and is this always the case?<br />
EXERCISES<br />
One of the criticisms leveled at Brecht was that some of his theories on theatre didn’t work in practice, and<br />
that he didn’t use them when he was directing. Brecht’s riposte was that he used what worked. Although<br />
these exercises are more useful in a workshop scenario than the rehearsal room, they should help to give a<br />
better understanding of how his theories can work on stage.<br />
Warm-up<br />
A good warm-up exercise that gets everyone in the right mind set is body part leading. Begin by walking round<br />
the room, leading with the head, then the nose, chin, shoulders, stomach, groin, feet and hands. Try to isolate<br />
each leading body part and stretch the movement as far as possible. Question what characters are<br />
suggested by each movement, and what their status is. Now ask each student to approach a chair leading<br />
with one body part, sit and look at the audience as that character, then move away leading with a different<br />
body part. If you want to develop this further, create improvisations where these characters are introduced to<br />
each other.<br />
Objective: Immediately breaks the ice, and makes the students aware of multi-role playing and status.<br />
Example: The actor playing the Narrator introduces each scene, and then immediately begins playing his<br />
character. In this way he lets the audience know that he is an actor playing a part, his attitude to that part,<br />
and also the character’s status.<br />
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Exaggeration<br />
The exaggeration and reported speech exercises are Brecht’s own. Begin this exercise with everyone sitting<br />
down in their own space, miming eating with a knife and fork. Try to make the mime as naturalistic as<br />
possible, then slowly let the knife and fork become enormous, and then tiny. Repeat the exercise, brushing<br />
your hair.<br />
Objective: ‘The truth is concrete’. Brecht wanted the audience to be aware of the social position of each<br />
character within the hierarchy, and the objects that characters use reveal this clearly.<br />
Example: <strong>Courage</strong> has a purse round her waist, because as head of the family she controls the finances. She<br />
is a street hawker, and has to be ready to make a sale at any time.<br />
Reported speech<br />
In pairs improvise a scene in which two people who have not seen each other for ten years meet at a bus<br />
stop. Each actor narrates or reports exactly what they themselves are doing, and puts ‘he /she said’ before<br />
they speak. For instance:<br />
Actor: (to the audience) ‘He sat on the ground’ (the actor sits)<br />
or<br />
Actor: (to the audience) ‘He said “It’s good to see you” (turning to actor 2) It’s good to see you’.<br />
When ready, introduce thoughts aloud. These thoughts might be in contradiction to the dialogue. For<br />
instance:<br />
Actor: (pointing at actor 2) ‘He hated the sight of him (turning to actor 2) How good to see you!’<br />
Try to use body part leading and freeze frames to suggest character and status.<br />
Objective: To make the actor and audience view the character from a critical distance.<br />
Example: Although this is an exercise to be used in rehearsals rather than performance, Brecht uses a similar<br />
device with the narrator.<br />
Focus<br />
This exercise was devised by Dario Fo. Seven actors are needed. Begin with actor one lying on the floor<br />
having been hit by a car. Actor two is the driver of the car. Actor three was crossing the road and witnessed<br />
the accident. Actor four also witnessed the accident, but believes the blame lies with actor three for making<br />
the car swerve and lose control. Actor five arrives and, claiming to be a doctor, begins to treat the injured<br />
person. Actor six, also claiming to be a doctor, is horrified by the actions of actor five and uses the patient as<br />
a dummy to demonstrate the correct procedure. Actor seven is a policeman who tries to sort out the mess.<br />
You can freeze frame the scene at any point to prompt ideas from the audience. It is up to actor one to finish<br />
the scene.<br />
Objective: By switching the focus from actor one to the other characters, the scene becomes less emotional<br />
and naturalistic, and makes the audience actively involved in the outcome. It also demonstrates the use of<br />
humour as a distancing technique.<br />
Example: In scene 11 The focus switches from Kattrin’s heroic drumming to the Farmer’s feeble attempts to<br />
mask the noise by chopping down a tree.<br />
Gestus<br />
1. In groups of five, devise a scene in which a high status character is dressed by his/her servants. As<br />
clothing and props are added, the servants must ask for something. However the character cannot speak<br />
until the last item has been put on, as this contains the essence of the character. For instance, the key piece<br />
for Winston Churchill could be his cigar. When this is added, the actor responds to the servants and freeze<br />
frame a gestus.<br />
Objective: To establish a history and social status of the character.<br />
Example: The staggered dressing of the Colonel in scene 6, with the moustache added last.<br />
2. In threes, explore a moment that involves a decision. For instance deciding whether to break up with<br />
someone, or considering whether to hand in some lost money, or owning up to losing a friend’s ipod. Then<br />
start to explore the contradictions: you could really use the money, but you may be rewarded for handing it in,<br />
and what if someone has seen you pick it up? Or you don’t want to lie to your friend, but the ipod was a new<br />
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Christmas present. Now try to represent this indecision as physical actions. It helps to begin with freeze<br />
frames.<br />
Objective: To demonstrate the contradiction in Gestus. The most famous example of this was in the 1949<br />
Berlinner Ensemble production. <strong>Mother</strong> <strong>Courage</strong> (played by Helene Weigel) gave a silent scream when she<br />
heard the shots of the firing squad that kill her son Swiss Cheese, but was unable to vocalize her pain for fear<br />
of giving herself away.<br />
Example: In scene 5 <strong>Mother</strong> <strong>Courage</strong> is torn between saving Kattrin from the burning house, and stopping the<br />
Chaplain from ripping up her best shirts for bandages.<br />
Themes<br />
First get the whole group to brain storm some themes of the play. Then in groups of five, devise a scene<br />
around one of these themes. Begin by freeze framing the beginning, middle and end, and then add devices<br />
such as montage, captions, music, song, reported speech, narration and juxtaposition. Use whatever devices<br />
best distance the audience. Finally, play with switching the order of the scene and decide where you want to<br />
place the audience.<br />
Objective: To demonstrate how the content of the scene determines the form, not the other way round.<br />
Example: In scene 4 <strong>Mother</strong> <strong>Courage</strong> sings the Song of the Great Surrender to disuade a young soldier from<br />
making a complaint. This song demonstrates how short the anger of the soldier is: by the time <strong>Courage</strong> has<br />
finished, it has evaporated. The song also helps to show <strong>Courage</strong>’s bitterness and her realism. She learns by<br />
instructing, so that she too leaves without making a complaint.<br />
Script work<br />
Each scene in the play can be played independently as a separate unit. In fact that was Brecht’s intention.<br />
After reading through scene one, consider the following;<br />
What is Brecht trying to show in this scene? <strong>Mother</strong> <strong>Courage</strong> tries to protect her children from the recruiters<br />
but loses her son to the war whilst she is busy doing a business deal. What does this tell us about the<br />
relationship between war and business?<br />
What do you think about the way characters behave? Should the soldiers take Eiliff? Why doesn’t Swiss<br />
Cheese do something to help? Is <strong>Mother</strong> <strong>Courage</strong> foolish to fall for the soldiers’ trick or is she just trying her<br />
best to survive?<br />
How could you stage the scene to make the audience aware that they are watching a play? Brecht suggested<br />
having the actors getting changed in to costume in full view, or having actors speak directly to the audience.<br />
How could the song be played separately from the scene?<br />
What are the contradictions in this scene? The great disorder of war begins with order. <strong>Mother</strong> <strong>Courage</strong><br />
needs the soldiers to do business but knows they want her children, and she is proud of her sons’ physical<br />
prowess even as she is aware of the danger. Kattrin sees her brother being taken away but cannot speak.<br />
Can you identify the different Gestus that each character embodies at each moment? The way the recruiters<br />
discuss the poor quality of recruits is different to the way they eye up Eiliff and Swiss Cheese. <strong>Mother</strong><br />
<strong>Courage</strong>’s challenges them with a knife but later sells them a belt buckle. Kattrin’s expression when she<br />
realizes that Eiliff is being taken away is different to her reaction to being put in the harness herself. <strong>Courage</strong><br />
makes a sale but has to acknowledge that she is responsible for losing her son.<br />
Can you define each element of the story, so that every moment can be played clearly? When <strong>Mother</strong><br />
<strong>Courage</strong> makes the sergeant draws lots, she is trying to dissuade them from taking her sons, and also Eiliff<br />
from joining the war. When she is tempted to sell a belt buckle, she must at first be suspicious, before being<br />
overcome with a desire to make a sale. Brecht referred to this clarity of action as ‘playing one thing after<br />
another’.<br />
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CHRONICLE<br />
1898 10 February: Bertolt Brecht is born in Augsburg, Germany<br />
1917<br />
1918<br />
Russian Revolution Studies as a medical student at Munich University<br />
End of First World War<br />
Military service as medical orderly<br />
Writes BAAL and THE BALLAD OF THE DEAD SOLDIER<br />
1919 Versailles Treaty Birth of Brecht’s illegitimate son Frank<br />
Writes DRUMS IN THE NIGHT<br />
1920 Nazi Party founded Death of Brecht’s mother<br />
1921<br />
1922<br />
1923<br />
Russian Famine Leaves University without a degree and moves to Berlin<br />
Mussolini comes to<br />
power in Italy<br />
Hitler’s unsuccessful<br />
Beerhall putsch<br />
1924 Stalin becomes<br />
General Secretary of<br />
USSR<br />
1926 Germany admitted to<br />
the league ofNations<br />
1927<br />
Directs Arnolt Bronnen’s PARRICIDE, but is taken off the production<br />
Premiere of DRUMS IN THE NIGHT in Munich<br />
Marries Marianne Zoff<br />
Premiere of IN THE JUNGLE in Munich<br />
Daughter Hanne is born<br />
Première of BAAL in Leipzig<br />
Directs THE LIFE EDWARD II OF ENGLAND in Munich<br />
Meets Elisabeth Hauptmann<br />
Stefan Brecht is born<br />
Co-directs BAAL in Berlin<br />
Premiere of MAN EQUALS MAN in Darmstadt and Düsseldorf<br />
Starts to read Karl Marx’ DAS KAPITAL<br />
Meets Kurt Weill<br />
Premiere of MAHAGOONY SONGSPIEL<br />
Divorces Marianne Zoff<br />
1928 Premiere of THE THREEPENNY OPERA in Berlin<br />
1929 Wall Street Crash Marries Helene Weigel<br />
Writes SAINT JOAN OF THE STOCKYARDS<br />
1930 3 million unemployed World Premiere of THE RISE AND FALL OF THE CITY OF MAHAGONNY<br />
inLeipzig<br />
Birth of daughter Barbara<br />
1932 Nazi election victory THE MOTHER opens in Berlin.<br />
Meets Margarete Steffin and Sergei Tretiakoff<br />
1933 Hitler appointed<br />
Chancellor<br />
Dachau opened<br />
1935 The Nuremberg Laws<br />
on Citizenship and<br />
Race passed<br />
1936 Spanish civil war<br />
1937<br />
1938<br />
German invasion of<br />
Sudetenland<br />
Kristallnacht<br />
The Brechts leave Germany via Prague. Go to Paris and buy house on Fyn<br />
Island, Denmark,<br />
New York première of THE THREEPENNY OPERA<br />
Meets Ruth Berlau<br />
German citizenship renounced by the Nazis<br />
Visits New York for the <strong>Theatre</strong> Union’s première of THE MOTHER<br />
Co-founds DAS WORT<br />
Starts writing LIFE OF GALILEO<br />
Première of eight scenes of FEAR AND MISERY OF THE THIRD REICH in<br />
Paris<br />
Finishes first version of LIFE OF GALILEO<br />
30
1939<br />
1940<br />
1941<br />
German invasion of<br />
Poland triggers<br />
Second World War<br />
Battle of Britain<br />
Germans invade Soviet<br />
Union<br />
Japanese attack Pearl<br />
Harbour<br />
1943 Germans defeated at<br />
Stalingrad,<br />
Allies land in Italy<br />
Moves to Stockholm<br />
Death of Brecht’s father<br />
Writes MOTHER COURAGE AND HER CHILDREN<br />
17 April: move to Helsinki<br />
Writes THE GOOD PERSON OF SZECHWAN<br />
Writes THE RESISTIBLE RISE OF ARTURO UI<br />
Premiere of MOTHER COURAGE AND HER CHILDREN at the Zürich<br />
Schauspielhaus<br />
Leaves Finland for America, via Russia<br />
Meets Charlie Chaplin<br />
World Premiere of THE GOOD PERSON OF SCZECHWAN at the Zürich<br />
Schauspielhaus<br />
World Premiere of LIFE OF GALILEO in Zürich<br />
Death of Brecht’s son Frank on the Russian Front<br />
1944 Normandy Landings Writes THE CAUCASIAN CHALK CIRCLE<br />
Brecht’s son by Ruth Berlau lives for only a few days<br />
1945<br />
Hitler commits suicide<br />
Total defeat of Nazi<br />
Germany<br />
1947 Marshall Plan for<br />
reconstruction of<br />
Europe<br />
1948 Russian impose<br />
blockade of Berlin<br />
1949<br />
Founding of West<br />
Germany and East<br />
Germany<br />
1950 Outbreak of the<br />
Korean War<br />
PRIVATE LIFE OF THE MASTER RACE (American adaptation of FEAR AND<br />
MISERY) in San Francisco and New York<br />
Première of LIFE OF GALILEO with Charles Laughton in Los Angeles<br />
Brecht appears before the House Un-American Activities Committee in<br />
Washington<br />
Returns to East Berlin<br />
Writes A SHORT ORGANUM FOR THE THEATRE<br />
Directs MOTHER COURAGE AND HER CHIDREN with Helene Weigel at the<br />
Deutsches Theater<br />
Takes Austrian citizenship<br />
Directs MOTHER COURAGE with Therese Giehse at the Munich<br />
Kammerspiele<br />
1951 Test of Hydrogen Bomb Directs THE MOTHER for the Berliner Ensemble at the Deutsches Theater<br />
1954 Directs première of THE CAUCASIAN CHALK CIRCLE for the Berliner<br />
Ensemble at the Theater am Schiffbauerdamm<br />
MOTHER COURAGE visits Paris International <strong>Theatre</strong> Festival<br />
1955 Signing of the Warsaw<br />
Pact<br />
1956 Khrushchev’s ‘secret<br />
speech’ denouncing<br />
Stalin<br />
Awarded the Stalin Prize<br />
Brecht taken ill<br />
The Berliner Ensemble visits London<br />
14 August: Brecht dies of heart attack<br />
17 August: Buried in the Dorotheen Cemetery in Berlin<br />
31
FURTHER READING<br />
The collected works of Brecht have been translated and are published by Methuen in eight volumes. Volume<br />
five contains <strong>Mother</strong> <strong>Courage</strong> and Life of Gallileo, translated by John Willett.<br />
Work by Brecht himself:<br />
Brecht on <strong>Theatre</strong>: The Development of an Aeshetic, Translated by John Willett, Methuen London 1964. This<br />
contains Brecht’s most important theories in his own words.<br />
The Messingkauf Dialogues, translated by John Willett, Methuen 2002<br />
Brecht on Film and Radio by Marc Silbermann, 2000. From Germany to Hollywood, this covers his writings on<br />
the media that was transforming arts and communication.<br />
Brecht on Art and Politics by Tom Kuhn and Steve Giles, 2004. Contains new translations with useful short<br />
summaries to each section.<br />
Other Work:<br />
Cambridge Companion to Brecht, edited by Thompson and Sachs, Cambridge University Press 1994. A good<br />
general guide, easy to use as a reference.<br />
Understanding Brecht by Walter Benjamin, Translated by Anna Bostock, Verso london 1998. Short and<br />
concise, contains a useful analysis of Epic <strong>Theatre</strong> and Brecht’s political beliefs.<br />
Brecht: A Choice of Evils, Martin Esslin, Methuen London 1964. Written just after Brecht’s death, a good early<br />
study of his work and the different attitudes to his writing and his communist beliefs.<br />
Brecht Chronicle, Klaus Volker, Seabury Press, New york 1975. The most complete biography containing<br />
references to his personal, political and artistic life.<br />
The Life and Lies of Bertolt Brecht, John Fuegi, HarperCollins, London 1995. A fairly sensationalist, and<br />
definitely unauthorised view claiming that most of his plays were written by others. Worth a read but not to be<br />
taken too seriously.<br />
Online:<br />
http://www.google.com/Top/Arts/Literature/Authors/B/Brecht,_Bertolt/<br />
Google compendium of different websites including translations, biographies, essays, discussion forum etc.<br />
http://german.lss.wisc.edu/brecht/<br />
The international Brecht Society website.<br />
http://www.dw-world.de/dw/article/0,2144,2129258,00.html<br />
DW-World.DE, website celebrating the 50 th anniversary of Brecht’s death, includes an article about his time in<br />
Hollywood.<br />
A Guide to the Plays of Bertolt Brecht<br />
By Stephen Unwin<br />
(Methuen 2005)<br />
RRP £9.99<br />
A guide to all of Brecht's key plays that sets them in their historical,<br />
dramaturgical and political contexts. Stephen Unwin provides a clear and<br />
readable guide to Brecht's plays that will prove invaluable to the student,<br />
teacher and theatre practitioner. Grouping and analysing plays<br />
chronologically according to their context, Unwin also considers Brecht's<br />
theory and looks at his impact and the legacy that he left. The Guide covers:<br />
Three Early Plays and Expressionism; Two Music <strong>Theatre</strong> Pieces and Kurt<br />
Weill; Marxism and the <strong>Theatre</strong>; Opposition Plays; Five Great Plays; A Late<br />
Masterpiece; Theory and Practice; Brecht's Legacy; A perfect companion to<br />
the plays of Brecht for the student and theatre practitioner; Clear structure<br />
and readable style; Written by the Artistic Director of <strong>English</strong> <strong>Touring</strong> <strong>Theatre</strong><br />
and the author of a range of theatre studies books.<br />
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