Mother Courage and her Children

by Bertolt Brecht
by the National Theatre of Northern Greece

Performing Bertolt Brecht’s antiwar masterpiece, written in 1939 when the author had exiled himself to Sweden, marks a double comeback for the National Theatre of Northern Greece. On the one hand Serbian director Nikita Milivojevic is returning after 13 years to direct one of Brecht’s most topical works in a new translation by George Depastas. On the other hand, actress Lydia Fotopoulou is returning to play the title role,  8 years after her last collaboration with the NTNG.

Anna Fierling, also known as Mother Courage, is Brecht’s anti-heroine. A mother of three children from different fathers, an ingenious trader struggling, during the Thirty Years’ War (1618-1648), to survive along with her children, using every means at her disposal. The play takes place over a 12-year period, during which Mother Courage faithfully follows the army with her cart and lives off the war, parasitically. With an intense instinct of self preservation and impressive adaptability, cunning, tough, foul-mouthed, Mother Courage suffers through more than any person could. Acting with profit as her goal, she ends up losing what is most valuable to her. According to the author, the play wants to show that “big business during wars cannot be done by the little guy, that war transforms admirable human traits into deadly ones – even for those possessing them – and that to fight against war no sacrifice is too great”.

On the performance Nikita Milivojevic underlines: “Reflecting the present situation, the work can be interpreted not as the absurdity of war, but as the absurdity of greed. Greed is one of the greatest wounds in our society. ‘Mother Courage’ is popular with each new generation and that is why in our performance the main character is supported by young actors who can play all the characters around her”.
It should be noted that ‘Mother Courage’ has been performed at the NTNG,  in 1982, directed by Theodoros Terzopoulos, with Lina Lambraki in the starring role.

Project contributors
Translation: Giorgos Depastas
Director: Nikita Milivojevic
Sets-Costumes: Kenny MacLellan
Choreography: Amalia Bennett
Sound design – music coach: Nikos Galenianos
With: Lydia Fotopoulou (Mother Courage), Eleftheria Aggelitsa, Stellina Vogiatzi, Sofia Kalemkeridou, George Kolovos, Emmanuel Kondos, Emmanuela Magoni, Dimitris Morfakidis, Angelica Noea, Christos Papadimitriou, Panagiotis Papaioannou, Alexandros Siatras, Orestis Chalkias. With AUTh School of Music Studies 10-member Student Orchestra.