This version of Brecht’s great anti-war play by playwright David Hare was premiered by the National Theatre, London, in November 1995. It adopts a freer approach to the text than many editions, adapting the original rather than offering a close translation. In this chronicle of the Thirty Years War, Mother Courage followsthe armies back and forth across Europe, selling provisions and liquorfrom her canteen wagon. One by one she loses her children to the warbut will not part with her livelihood – the wagon. The Berlinproduction of 1949, with Helene Weigel as Mother Courage, marked thefoundation of the Berliner Ensemble. Considered by many tobe one of the greatest anti-war plays ever written and Brecht’smasterpiece, it remains a powerful example of Brecht’s Epic Theatre and pioneering theatrical style.