Every event, attitude, and emotion felt in this play is affected by the circumstances of war. Mother Courage’s livelihood is based on a canteen wagon through which she sells food and various goods to soldiers. She and her children pull the wagon, following the regiments to wherever the war takes them. Each of Mother Courage’s children suffer the consequences of war and are eventually destroyed. Mother Courage and her Children is a play about the destruction and profiteering inherent in war. In a world where an estimated 4.7 million people and counting have died in post-9/11 war zones and the UN estimates that 90% of wartime casualties are suffered by civilians.

This performance of Mother Courage and her Children by Bertolt Brecht, draws parallels to recent world events and reminds us of the cost of war.