This film looks at the theoretical work of Brecht, featuring archive footage from the 2008 production and interviews with this production's creative team including translator Tony Kushner and director Deborah Warner.
I hope I can pull the wagon by myself. Yes, I'll manage, there's not much in it now. I must get back into business. Relinquishing her daughter's corpse to the local peasants, Mother Courage resolves to continue her trade at the conclusion of the play, indicating for Brecht, as he notes programmatically in the Courage Model Book, that she has learned nothing.
Courage is a businesswoman because she is a mother. Courage can't be a mother because she is a businesswoman. This film looks at the role of motherhood, commerce and war in 'Mother Courage and Her Children'.
Analysis of Major Characters Themes War as Business Brecht states in the Courage Model Book that the play conceives of war as a "continuation of business by other means." War is neither some supernatural force nor simply a rupture in civilization but one of civilization's preconditions and logical consequences.
The theatrical conventions developed by Brecht are surrounded by much confusion. Although he wrote extensively on the dramatic theory behind his work, some aspects are still vague. To understand it, we must evaluate his theatrical conventions and how they relate to both his writings and productions, whilst keeping in mind that Brecht's techniques were a by-product of his environment (see Influences on Brecht section).
When you hear that Olympia Dukakis is starring in "Mother Courage and Her Children,'' your first reaction is that a great performance could be in the offing. But that potential is not realized in Shakespeare & Company's production of Bertolt Brecht's antiwar classic.
