We saw Mother Courage and Her Children on Saturday and WOWWW what a play. It was absolutely beautiful and moving, I was laughing, crying, and feeling all the emotions. The costuming and the set was so perfect to the story and the actors were absolutely amazing. I would absolutely go see that play again and it was worth standing in the heat for so long.
I do believe the Globe theatre’s production of Mother Courage uses Brecht’s alienation technique while still allowing the audience to be engaged emotionally. I think a great example of this is the musical numbers throughout the play. The songs interrupted dramatic, emotional parts in the play. A lot of the time the songs kind of made light out of situations that were happening that weren’t funny at all. This made us, the audience, not become fully absorbed in the suffering of the characters we were watching and instead reflect on the message of the play and what it was trying to get us to understand socially and politically. The actors also addressed the audience and engaged with them, not very typical in other plays, creating a theatrical illusion.
The Globe production also made humor in very unexpected moments and about a lot of things weren’t actually funny and I connected a lot of that with how Cabaret does their show. The instability of emotion and jumping from sadness into humor stops the audience from sitting in their sadness and can create a really awkward feeling of ,”should I laugh even though this isn’t funny and actually really messed up and sad.” This makes you think more deeply into what’s going on in the story and all aspects of the story and the flaws of the characters in it and the society they live in. I thought the production did a great job in conveying Brecht’s message. It made you feel bad for Mother Courage while still seeing how she was extremely flawed and put profit above peace when it came to war. It was the perfect mix of pitying the characters while still forcing you to look deeper into every aspect of them and the story.
Theatre in London U of A 