If from war you benefit, then you must give back to it...
Bertolt Brecht's play was originally set in the Thirty Years War of 17th Century Sweden. Oladipo Agboluaje's excellent adaptation, written specially for this production, moves the action to contemporary West Africa where bloody never-ending wars afflict the population.
The play highlights the issue of child soldiers and the malign influence of multinational corporations sponsoring wars in order to exploit oil, diamond and mineral reserves.
Mother Courage pulls her cart through a war zone, buying and selling whatever she can obtain to feed herself and her children. She gives her allegiance to neither side, trading with anyone who can pay and earns her name by crossing a battlefield to sell
food at inflated prices to starving soldiers.
Her philosophy is amoral, she simply wishes to survive and sees an opportunity in the terrible suffering of war. However, like a parasite killing its host, her exploitation sows the seeds of her own destruction. Despite her name, she lacks true courage she believes that to survive one must never resist and should submit to each act of wickedness.
Her greatest fear is that peace will break out and take away her livelihood. One by one, each of her children are lost to the war but she continues to see it as her benefactor. Her business acumen is her undoing, haggling over the ransom to be paid for her son's life, she loses the chance to save him.
This is a timely and moving production that has been expertly adapted to its new setting with many modern references and much ironic humour. All the acting is superb but special mentions must go to Carmen Munroe as Mother Courage and Ashley Miller as her daughter.
This production was created by the Eclipse Theatre Initiative who aim to encourage black artists and to produce plays relevant to black audiences and they have certainly been successful. This is an example of the Playhouse's best kind of production, relevant, accessible, thought-provoking and entertaining.
Mother Courage and Her Children is on at The Playhouse until 21st February.
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