Mother Courage and Her Children, written by Bertolt Brecht, was a heartbreaking story about war, the corruption it can have on people in the midst of it, and the brutal unfairness of it.
In terms of feeling alienated from the characters in the show, I did not. There were a couple of times that an actor would make eye contact with me during a moment, which while entertaining, only drew me into the show more.
I think the play was successful in conveying its message of war and how it tears countries, families, people apart. Mother Courage truly loved her children. I never doubted that while watching her, despite watching what she had to do: denying her own son, bringing them into war zones to sell whatever they could for money, leaving her daughter buried in another grid of a warzone that means nothing to her.
It was hard watching Eilif go off to join the war because he wanted to fight for something more than what his life was living. It was even harder to watch him believe that his actions were good, helpful, all to eventually lead to his death. And Swiss Cheese, doing the honest thing, doing what he believed was right for the help of others, for the people who trusted him, all for it to end with him being killed. And Kattrin, who dreamed of one day running around with her brothers again, who in her final moments, sacrificed her own life to save others, so that they could have a future in a world that treated her so horribly.
It’s the terrible realization that no matter what path these children went down, motives and intention being their own, it ended with their deaths. And Mother Courage, who had to face all of them (yes, I believe that she knows that Eilif is dead) and keep moving, because she knows that the second she takes a moment to feel, she’ll lose everything that she worked for, despite having lost so much. Her attitude throughout the entire show is in a constant state of aiming for what’s next, giving no time to reflect on what was.
Theatre in London U of A 