Mother Courage
Department of Literature, Film and Theatre Studies at the University of Essex

The world turns, torn apart by endless war.

Anna Fierling, known as Mother Courage, struggles to keep her business afloat – and her three children alive.

But what happens to the innocent when profit is valued above people?

“In the dark times

Will there also be singing?

Yes, there will be singing

About the dark times.”

Regarded by some as the greatest anti-war play of the twentieth century, Brecht’s darkly comic, poetic masterpiece about the brutality and beauty of humanity takes to the stage of the Lakeside in a new concise version.