Mother Courage and her Children

The story of Mother Courage captures an incredibly bleak vision of humanity when operating purely on survival instinct. This production captures all the intricacies of the different ways that individuals must navigate the realities of the Thirty Year War and somehow keep their dignity intact, as well as eek out what ultimately turns out to be a miserable existence.

Despite depicting this harsh reality in detail, this production is also able to see the value of moments of humour and satire. Baryana Popov brings an uncanny reality to the character Mother Courage, whose children are sacrificed as part of a futile and endless conflict that is clearly more about business than politics. While she profits from the war, it is also clear that society has become conditioned to its necessity. This has become her only form of subsistence but at the cost of everything that is truly precious to her. Popov conveys the complexity of Mother Courage by capturing both the allure and the abhorrence of her character. Her performance is nothing short of masterful.

The remainder of the cast take on several roles and keep the ensemble small and nimble. This highlights the archetypal nature of the personas who occupy this war-torn environment: the cook, the chaplain, the soldier, the sex worker, the general, the peasants. These personas represent the variety of ways in which they become fixtures in this scenario of endless battlefields. 

Mother Courage’s children, however, bring a more personal dimension to the story and the tragic nature of their destinies is portrayed with enormous poignancy. Kattrin (Lakshmi Ganapathy), Eilif (Rodrigo Calderón), and Swiss Cheese (Nathan Milne) all capture the paradoxical relationship with Mother Courage; a powerful mix of an unbreakable bond and sheer resentment.

The cleverly designed set, the doubling up of roles and the insertion of musical interludes keeps the action moving. The performers sometimes step out of their roles, in a reflexive mode, to comment on the events and contextualise the different scenes that advance the plot. This often keeps the audience connected and invested in the performance and adds some lighter moments to what is, essentially, a long and harrowing story.

In his director’s notes, Millar points out that this performance group was “born from the ashes of La Trobe’s drama department.” While the play might be specifically about the futility of war, this production (and those involved) effectively gestures towards a broader connection between the blunt or corrupt machinery of politics and the deliberate dismantling and destruction of everything that keeps us civil. This show is a powerful indictment on both current and historical breakdowns in our social and political systems.

Patricia Di Risio 

Photographer: Darren Gill