Ahahahaha, yeah, I’m kind of late with this…
I liked this play more than I thought I would. It was a fairly easy read, and allowed me to see where many modern plays are coming from in their thinking and presentation. The songs were interesting. I liked The Song of the Three Great Men the best, because it blatantly had a message, to the point of being humorous (even more blatant than the others, I thought), that being Virtuous will done get you killed.
I also enjoyed the character of Mother Courage, even though her morals were a bit skewed sometimes. I was brought up on the idea of survivalism. Not stepping on as many people as possible to make more (unneeded) money, though… but doing whatever you can, eating whatever’s edible, wearing whatever’s not ripped to shreds, and, every once in awhile screwing people over who might not entirely deserve it, just so that you and the people you love don’t have to go entirely without. That’s why, even though it was a bit shitty of Mother Courage to bargain for Swiss Cheese’s life, I could understand where she was coming from. Her wagon was her sole source of income, and she had KaTtrin (and herself, for Kattrin’s sake) to think about.
Oh, so here’s a super short clip I found of a production of Mother Courage and Her Children:
It looks to be set in the Wild/Old West. I think this is an interesting take. The wagon certainly lends itself to it. And you could think of the Protestants as Cowboys and the Catholics as Indians. I can imagine Elif signing up to be a cowpoke and then slaughtering whole families of Indians…
~Jessie
