MOTHER COURAGE AND HER CHILDREN

After the resounding success of 'The Exception and The Rule' earlier in 2014, I was approached to direct some scenes from Brecht's 'Mother Courage and Her Children' for Creative Arts students at Melbourne University.  The request came through Ubermensch Theatre, and the objective was to demonstrate epic theatre, gestus, and ways of approaching Brecht.

With the assistance of a brave and brilliant group of young actors, we created magic.  I wrote a fabel to precis the play up to scene 5, and then we presented scenes 6 & 7 in full.  We then participated in a Q&A with the students.  One of the very important alienation techniques I used was to have Mother Courage played by two women.

CAST:
Mother Courage:  April Gareffa & Elizabeth Paterson
Chaplain:  Daniel Beratis
Clerk:  Maddi Moore
Katrina/Soldier:  Idha Kurniasih
Soldier/Percussion:  Bronwyn Dunston

ARCHIVAL PHOTOS:









FABEL FOR SCENES 1-5:

Actor 7 blows whistle.  Actors march onstage from the aisles and form 2 lines. 

ALL:                        Huh!

ACTOR 7:             2, 3, 4(Continue until in final position)

ACTOR 7:             (blows whistle) Attention! About face!  At ease!

ACTOR 5:             Scenes from Mother Courage and Her Children!

ACTOR 2:             From the play written by Bertolt Brecht!

ACTOR 3:             The story so far!Actor 4 steps centre

ACTOR 4:             Scene 1.  Spring 1624.  The Swedish commander-in-chief, Count Oxen.. (stumbles over the word.  Actor 3 comes forward and whispers it to her) I know!...Oxensterniara, is raising troops in Dalecarlia for the Polish campaign.  The canteen women, Anna Fierling, known under the name of Mother Courage, loses one son. Actor 7 blows whistle and all start marching.

CHORUS:             War!  Huh! Yeah!  What is it good for?  Absolutely nothing! (whilst marching, the soldiers wheel out into a line across stage, then march forward, then march backward.  Song is sung 4 times). Actor 5 comes forward.

ACTOR 5:             Scene 2.  In the years 1625 and 1626 Mother Courage crosses Poland in the train of the Swedish armies.  Before the fortress of Wallhof she meets her son again.  She has the successful sale of a rooster (actor 4 becomes a rooster.  All look at her in disbelief), and it is the heyday of her dashing son. Actor 7 steps forward.  Actors 2-5 fall about in a debauched manner, singing ‘Born To Be Wild’.

ACTOR 7:             Scene 3.  (chorus keep messing about loudly).  Scene 3.  (chorus keep messing about loudly and so Actor 7 blows whistle.  All stop and sheepishly fall back in line). Scene 3.  Three years later Mother Courage is taken prisoner along with elements of a Finnish regiment.  She manages to save her daughter, likewise her covered cart, but her honest son is killed. Actor 4 lies down and everyone gathers around the body.

CHORUS:             (softly and sadly) War, huh, yeah.  What is it good for?  Absolutely nothing. (2 times)

ACTOR 7:              (crossing to down stage centre) Scene 4.  Mother Courage sings the song of grand capitulation.

ACTOR 2:             (knocks Actor 7 out of the way.  Actor 7 joins Actor 3 stage right)
 Back when I was young, I was brought to realise
What a very special person I must be.

ACTOR 5:             (fights with Actor 2 for centre stage throughout this verse)  (Not just any old cottager’s daughter, what with my looks and my talents and my urge towards higher things).

ACTOR 2:             And insisted that my soup should have no flies in it.
                                No one makes a sucker out of me!

ACTOR 5:             (All or nothing, only the best is good enough, each man for himself, nobody’s telling me what to do.)

ACTOR 2:             Then I heard a bird, Tweet (Actor 4 gets up and joins arms with 3 & 7 and then march across to stage left.  Actors 5 & 2 watch them, confused)

ACTOR 4:             Follow the beat!
                                And you’ll be marching with the band
                                In step, responding to command
                                And striking up your little dance:
                                Now we advance.
                                And now:  parade, form square!
                                Then men swear God’ there –
                                But I know there’s not the faintest chance!(Actor 5 & 2 separate to down stage left and right)

ACTOR 5:             In no time at all anyone who looked could see
                                That I’d learned to take my medicine with good grace.

ACTOR 2:             (Two kids on my hands, and look at the price of bread, and things they expect of you!)

ACTOR 5:             When they finally come to feel that they were through with me
                                They’d got me grovelling on my face.

ACTOR 2:             (Takes all sorts to make a world, you scratch my back and I’ll scratch yours, no good banging your head against a brick wall).

ACTOR 5:             Then I heard a bird, tweet. The chorus cross to stage right doing high kicks as they sing.  Actors 5 & 2 watch them angrily.

ACTOR 3,4,&7:   Follow the beat!
                                And you’ll be marching with the band
                                In step, responding to command
                                And striking up your little dance:
                                Now they advance.
                                And now:  parade, form square!
                                Then men swear God’s there –
                                But I know there’s not the faintest chance. Actors 5 & 2 come to centre stage in friendship.  The chorus form a line up stage

ACTOR 5&2:        I’ve known people tried to storm the summits:
                                There’s no star too bright or seems to far away.

ACTOR 5:             (Dogged does it, where there’s a will there’s a way, by hook or by crook).

ACTOR 5&2:        As each peak disclosed fresh peaks to come,
                                It’s strange how much a plain straw hat could weigh.

ACTOR 2:             (You have to cut your throat according to your cloth).

ACTOR 5&2:        Then I heard a bird, tweet. (Actors 5& 2 are dragged into the line by Actors 4)

ALL:                        Follow the beat!
                                And they’ll be marching with the band
                                In step, responding to command
                                And striking up their little dance:  (all wheel to form two lines)
                                Now they advance.
                                And now:  parade, form square!
                                Then men swear God’s there – (all turn to face audience and stop marching)
                                Not the faintest chance!

Actor 5 steps to the centre. 

ACTOR  5:            Scene 5.  Two years have gone by.  The war is spreading to new areas.  Ceaselessly on the move, Courage’s little cart crosses Poland, Moravia, Bavaria, Italy, then Bavaria again.  In 1631 Commander Tilly’s victory at Leipzig costs Mother Courage four officers’ shirts. Actor 4 steps forward

ACTOR 4:             And here is where we pick up the story.  Scene 6.  Outside the Bavarian town of Ingelstadt Courage participates in the funeral of the late Imperial Commander Tilly.  Discussions are held about war heroes and the war’s duration.  The Chaplain (indicates Actor 3.  Actor 3 crosses stage right, sets up chair and gives Actor 4 the boa) complains that his talents are lying fallow and dumb Katrinn…

ACTORS 7:           hey!  I’m mute, not stupid!

ACTOR 4:             Shhh!  …Dumb Katrinn gets the red boots.

ACTOR 5:             Should we explain about the boots?
                               
ACTOR 7:             They won’t get it.

ACTOR 4:             Quiet!  This is my bit.  I didn’t interrupt you lot.

ACTOR 7:             But they won’t understand that bit.

ACTOR 4:             Fine!  So, young Katrinn has been exploring her burgeoning sexuality by imitating the camp prostitute, Yvette.  (chorus create orgy tableau #1) In scene three she put on Yvette’s red boots as part of the fantasy. (Chorus create orgy tableau #2) In the meantime Mother Courage has promised her a husband come peace time.  (chorus create wedding tableau).  Is that enough?

ALL:                        (nodding at each other and getting in position) Yes, yep, I think that should do it.

ACTOR 4:             Great.  Now can we get back to it?  (Chorus picks Actor 7 back up) Right.  The year is 1632.  (crosses to Chaplain and starts playing cards).

ACTOR 5:             We are inside a canteen tent.  It has a bar.  It is raining and we can hear the drums and funeral music.  Mother Courage is doing a stocktake.


Scene 6… 

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