Sunday, February 17, 2008

Mother Courage and her Children: Brecht in Iran

Mother Courage and Her Children was written in 1939 by the German dramatist and poet Bertolt Brecht (1898-1956); one of the founders of modern theater and an avid anti-nazi artist whose work reflected a strong resistance to the rise of Fascism . The play is set in the perior of the Thirty Years' War of 1618-1648. It follows the fortunes of Anna Fierling, nicknamed "Mother Courage", a woman with the Swedish Army who is determined to make her living from the war. Over the course of the play, she loses all three of her children, Swiss Cheese, Eilif, and Katrin, to the same war from which she sought to profit. (more at Wikipedia) This year, Iran's 26th annual Fajr Theater Festival hosted the world famous Berliner Ensemble and staged Mother Courage (In Persian: naneh delavar) directed by Clause Peymann.




6 comments:

Frank Partisan said...

Brecht in Iran! I doubt if they have Brecht in Saudi Arabia.

Naj said...

Renegade eye,

I think you are right!

Anonymous said...

Hey, Naj, Seeking Utopia is closed. I've opened another blog called Dangerous Creation and changed my pseudonym to David! A change is as good as a holiday, so they say (then 'they' say a lot of things).

Website address is http://dangerouscreation.com. Hope to see you sometime.

Love this post!

Georg said...

Hallo Naj,

I imagine the play was performed in German. Are there enough people in Tehran knowing the language?

Or are they just sitting there looking at a play performed in a foreign language and treating a strange subject?

What do you think?

Georg

Naj said...

Georg, this is a very good question, I don't know.

However, theater conveys a lot more than just the spoken words. Iranian theater goers are quite used to modern theater and especially Brecht's concept of distanciation.

I wish I were there to speak from experience.

Anukatri said...

This is fascinating. True proof of Brecht's internationalism and growing appeal in the global hard times of today. I'm doing some research on Brecht's receptions in Asia and Africa. Thanks a million for this post!