Mother Courage and Her Children at Shakespeare’s Globe

For a play written in 1939, Mother Courage and Her Children still feels upsettingly relevant. Bertolt Brecht’s condemnation of war and capitalism is widely recognised throughout his work, alongside his use of the alienation effect, which encouraged audiences to analyse and criticise the systems that perpetuate war. In Anna Jordan’s translation of Mother Courage, with Courage played by powerhouse Michelle Terry, we see the fusing of Brecht’s vision with the contemporary moment we’re living in today, immersing us in a world where the perpetual cycle of war feels crushingly recognisable, ruthless and dystopian.

Narrated throughout by Max Runham, we span years of an endless war that grows increasingly brutal for Courage and her children as they wheel her changing cartful of supplies around the Globe’s thrust stage. She reworks the goods into things like “Courage Burgers” and “Courage Ammo”, haggling and selling to make ends meet, with devastating loss following behind. Terry commands the stage with a candescent energy that never dips, injecting dark humour and a wheeler-dealer-like rapport with the audience throughout. Her toughness perseveres until the cracks of devastation begin to emerge, as the conflict between her love for her children and her need to profit from the war comes to a head.

Along the way, Courage and her children, Kattrin (Rachelle Diedericks), Swiss Cheese (Rawaed Asde) and Eilif (Vinnie Heaven), encounter soldiers, fellow civilians, rioters, sex workers, a minister (Ferdy Roberts) and a chef (Nicolas Tennant). One particularly significant moment comes between Kattrin, who has already been abused by a soldier as a child and is mute and Yvette (Nadine Higgin), a sex worker dressed entirely in red. Kattrin watches her dance, clearly seeing her as a symbol of romance and sexual desire, before later sneaking on a try of Yvette’s red heeled boots herself. Diedericks’s performance really shines, and through expression and physicality alone, she conveys Kattrin’s emotions and inner turmoil with impressive precision.

With sharp direction from Elle While, the ensemble brings a compelling and fiery energy to the production, singing and dancing alongside the band at the back of the stage, who perform a soulful, jazz-inspired score by James Maloney. While the first half runs slightly longer, the second half feels punchier, bringing some particularly strong ensemble moments, including a tender and moving scene between mothers and their babies singing from the balcony while surrounded by falling snow. The stage design by Takis has a brutalist, abandoned quality to it, while the grubby costumes from Karen Hopkinson further highlight the wreckage of the world around them and the toll it takes on the characters.

This Mother Courage delivers a strong, purposeful and strikingly current message about the continual cycles of war, reminding us that those with the sweetest virtues of bravery, honesty and kindness are often the ones who suffer the most. With a tremendous performance by Globe Artistic Director Michelle Terry at its centre, this is a production that feels urgent, affecting and fierce.