Moeder Courage
Bertolt Brecht / Lisaboa Houbrechts / KVS
Vulnerability, resilience... These are the themes explored by one of the most innovative playwrights of the last century and a young Belgian stage director drawn to the timeliness of an anti-war play.
The original legend of a German Baroque writer inspired Bertolt Brecht to write a play about a woman who makes a living selling goods during the Thirty Years’ War (1618-1648), profiting from Catholics and Protestants alike. However, she will pay a very high price for her business: the death of her children, victims of the war that put food on their table. Perhaps Brecht was criticising opportunism, as well as war, with this character, but Lisaboa Houbrechts sees Mother Courage as a complex and sometimes ambiguous individual who perpetuates war and is also a victim of it. Her staging of the play, which premiered in Zurich and then in Berlin in 1949, uses the original music and songs by Paul Dessau composed for the German premiere. Centre stage we find a large sphere that is both a feminine symbol and an allusion to the cart that Mother Courage is constantly pushing, symbolising death, life, war, and the maternal womb.
The production’s creator is a theatre director known for creations that bring together visual arts, opera, music, and text. Lisaboa Houbrechts founded her own company, Kuiperskaai, together with Romy Louise Lauwers, Victor Lauwers and Oscar van der Put and debuted with The Goldberg Chronicles (2014). In 2016, her staging of A Winter’s Tale, with visuals, text, and an intelligent mix of artistic disciplines (performance art, music, choreography), sparked interest in her productions, all of which feature music as a key element. She used Bach’s music as a leitmotif in Vake Poes; of hoe God verdween, and in 2023 she staged her Médée with the Comédie-Française in Paris. Since 2022, she has been an artistic co-director at the Toneelhuis theatre in Antwerp, together with Gorges Ocloo, FC Bergman, Benjamin Abel Meirhaeghe, and Olympique Dramatique.
Produced by KVS & Toneelhuis
Coproduced by: Théâtre De Liège, Le Phénix-Scène Nationale De Valenciennes, Théâtre de la Ville Paris, Perpodium
With the support of The Taxshelter of the Belgian Federal Government via Cronos Invest, The Flemish Community & Regio Hauts-de-France
Click to enlarge image: Moeder Courage Foto Vahid Amanpour.
Moeder Courage Foto Vahid Amanpour
Discipline
- Theater
Dates and times
Thursday 17/07 - 20:30 h
Space
Durada
Language
- Multilingüe amb sobretitulació en català
Prices
Other criteria
- Essentials
- International
Artistic sheet
Text: Bertolt Brecht · Original title: Mother Courage and her Children · Direction: Lisaboa Houbrechts · Dramaturgy: Dina Dooreman, Erwin Jans · Actors: Laetitia Dosch, Koen De Sutter, Joeri Happel, Aydin Ìşleyen, Alain Franco, Laura De Geest, Lisi Estaras, Pietro Quadrino · Original music: Paul Dessau · Music arrangement, additional music and sound design: Alain Franco · Performance music: Alain Franco & Aydin Ìsleyen · Vocals & saz: Aydin Ìsleyen · Costumes: Oumar Dicko · Light design: Fabiana Piccioli · Set design: Lisaboa Houbrechts & Ralf Nonn · Production manager: Ella De Gregoriis · Stage master: Carlo Bourguignon · Light Technician: Margareta Andersen · Sound Technician: Brecht Beuselinck · Subtitles: Inge Floré • With the help of: Lubna Azabal
Translation en Français: Irène Bonnaud (Bertolt Brecht est publié et représenté par L’ARCHE – éditeur & agence théâtrale. www.arche-editeur.com), in het Nederlands: Gerrit Kouwenaar. Hebrew: Amit Lebleng. Kurdish : Aynur Bozkurt
Intern assistant direction: Daan Haeverans & Ludwig Sander
Les chansons suivantes de Paul Dessau sur "Mère Courage et ses enfants" seront chantées sans accompagnement instrumental : Mon capitaine - Chanson de Mère courage, La Chanson de la grande capitulation, La Chanson de la fraternisation et De Ulm à Metz."
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