REVIEW: Bertolt Brecht’s Mother Courage and her Children

Scottish poet Tom Leonard died last December. Among his many works is a reworking of Bertolt Brecht’s play Mother Courage and Her Children. At this year’s Edinburgh International Book Festival, Leonard’s good friend Tam Dean Burn staged a reading of this adaptation, with a cast of seven other actors to assist him.

This anti-war play, originally written in 1939 and set in the Thirty Years War of the 17^th century, is transposed by Leonard to contemporary Scotland. A war between Protestants and Catholics divides the land, threatening Mother Courage’s children. The full-cast reading in the Spark Theatre on George Street was a delight, and the only thing to be regretted is that they could only perform the first half of it.

In this union of two great literary minds, there is much humour. One of the main characters, for instance, is simply called Swiss Cheese. There are also songs and music, and Bea Webster as Kattrin provides sign language interpretation.

In an introduction at the beginning, Tam Dean Burn thanked festival director Nick Barley for allowing him to put on this reading, and expressed his desire to one day see the entire play performed. Hopefully, we won’t have to wait too long.