MOTHER COURAGE AND HER CHILDREN
by Bertolt Brecht

MOTHER COURAGE AND HER CHILDREN
by Bertolt Brecht
Directed by Stathis Livathinos
From 4 December 2024

The great dramatist, writer and poet Bertolt Brecht wrote his masterpiece, Mother Courage and Her Children, in Scandinavia in 1939. Aiming to present society as capable of change, he set the work during the Thirty Years' War in Europe as a cry of anguish in response to the Nazi invasion of Poland and the impending outbreak of hostilities across the continent.

The play follows the enterprising Anna Fierling, known as Mother Courage, in her fight for survival. She exploits the conflict, selling goods to the soldiers on the battlefield, while trying in vain to protect her three offspring. Mother Courage is a fiercely anti-war piece but at the same time works as a parable, talking about the struggle to make a living, the most tragic of losses - the death of children, and the high price of profit.

This is Stathis Livathinos's debut as a director on the Main Stage of the NTG, and also the first time he has tackled Brecht. The music and songs of Mother Courage are performed in a new version, not by Paul Dessau, but by Livathinos's frequent collaborator, Thodoris Abazis, while the company is made up of a host of - mainly young - talented actors.

Translation: Giorgos P. Depastas
Director: Stathis Livathinos
Music: Theodore Abazis
Set and costume design: Eleni Manolopoulou
Movement: Andi Xhuma
Video design: Alexandros Avranas
Lighting design: Alekos Anastasiou
Associate in dramaturgy,Production dramaturg: Erie Kyrgia
Music coach: Melina Peonidou
Directing assistant: Elena Bernte
Music assistant: Yorgos Karoumpalos
Set and costume design assistant: Emily Koukoutsaki
Second set design assistant: Elina Aloupogianni
Third set design assistant: Marialena Triglida

The cast (in alphabetical order): Nikos Alexiou, Bety Arvaniti, Vasilis Darmas, Giannis Dendrinos, Stamatis Fakorellis, Antonis Giannakos, Panagiotis Kammenos, Fotis Koutrouvidis, Paris Leontios, Anna Magou, Vasilis Papadimitriou, Angelos Pappas, Antonis Parharidis, Iakovos Pavlopoulos, Theodosia Savvaki, Eva Simatou, Christos Sonakis, Ioannis Syrios, Vasilis Tsalikis

"Bertolt Brecht, Mutter Courage und ihre Kinder, in: ders., Werke. Große kommentierte Berliner und Frankfurter Ausgabe, Band 6 © Bertolt-Brecht-Erben / Suhrkamp Verlag 1989."