TEHRAN-The play “Mother Courage and Her Children” written in 1939 by the German dramatist and poet Bertolt Brecht (1898–1956) is on stage at Mehrab Theater in Tehran.

Directed by Ali Yaghoubi, the play has Morteza Yaghoubpur, Naser Ezzati, Asal Rajabi, Alireza Yousefi, Hamed Mesbah, Fatima Hoseinpur, Fatemeh Salehi, and Asal Sadeghi in the cast among others.

Considered by some to be the greatest play of the 20th century, and perhaps also the greatest anti-war play of all time, “Mother Courage” is composed of 12 scenes.

Following Brecht's own principles for political drama, the play is not set in modern times but during the Thirty Years' War of 1618–1648, which involved all the German states, France, and Sweden. It follows the fortunes of Anna Fierling, a wily canteen woman with the Swedish Army, who is determined to make a living from the war. She is nicknamed Mother Courage for her coolness in safeguarding her merchandise under enemy fire. Throughout the play, she loses all three of her children to the very war from which she tried to profit; yet it does not interrupt her profiteering.

“Mother Courage” is one of nine plays that Brecht wrote in resistance to the rise of Fascism and Nazism. In response to the invasion of Poland by the German armies of Adolf Hitler in 1939, Brecht wrote “Mother Courage” in a little over a month. 

Initially inspired by concern at how neutral countries were profiteering from the war, the play contains a much wider message: that to depend on capitalism and the conflicts it engenders not only leads to disaster but to a coarsening of humanity. 

The play will remain on stage until August 2 at Mehrab Theater located at the junction of Imam Khomeini and Vali-e Asr streets.

SS/SAB