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{{redirect|Die Mutter|the 1958 film adapation|Die Mutter (film)}}
{{Italic title}}
'''''The Mother''''' (
==Background==
It was written in collaboration with [[Hanns Eisler]], [[Slatan Dudow]] and [[Günther Weisenborn]] in 1930–31 in [[prose]] [[dialogue]] with unrhymed irregular [[free verse]] and ten initial songs in its score, with three more added later. Eisler rewrote the [[incidental music]] as a [[cantata]], [[Opus number|op.]] 25, for chorus, solo voices and two pianos for a 1935 New York stage production. The play's full German title is '''''{{Lang|de|Die Mutter. Leben der Revolutionärin Pelagea Wlassowa aus Twer}}''''' (The mother. Life of the Revolutionary Pelagea Vlassova from [[Tver]]).
==Performance History==
It premièred
Brecht wrote ''The Mother'' at a time when [[Adolf Hitler|Hitler]] was gaining power in
In the play, Brecht utilizes narrative, irony, the juxtaposition of self-proclaimed "truths" to reveal their flaws, the concretizing of complex ideas into dramatic events, an understanding and simple presentation of human behaviour, and a comedic [[optimism]] that things can be changed and that reason and common sense will overcome fear and [[superstition]]. Vlassov is Brecht's entirely positive major character, who endures a long and difficult road to liberation.▼
Between 1973 and 1975, placards quoting [[Richard Nixon]] and [[George Jackson (Black Panther)|George Jackson]] were hung on the set of the [[San Francisco Mime Troupe]]'s production of ''The Mother'', rather than the quotes by [[Karl Marx]] and [[Vladimir Lenin]] called for in the original script.<ref
''The Mother'' is Brecht's most elaborate use of his radically experimental [[Lehrstücke]], or 'learning plays,' which he describes as "a piece of anti-[[Metaphysics|metaphysical]], [[Materialism|materialistic]], [[Non-Aristotelian Drama|non-Aristotelian drama]]."<ref name="willett"/> The play suggests that to become a good mother involves more than just complaining about the price of soup; rather, one must struggle against it, not only for her and her family's sake, but for the sake of all working families. The title character, the mother Pelagea Vlassova, journeys through the play’s fourteen scenes, the death of her son, and her own impending illness, fighting illiteracy while constantly filled with good humor and wily [[activism]]. The moment in October 1917 when she becomes free to carry and raise her own [[Red Flag]] on the eve of the czar's overthrow proves momentous. The play has garnered continued recognition for its forensic, witty and, some would say, [[Humanism|humanist]] critique of [[capitalism]] seen through the experiences of those obliged, as Brecht saw it, to live beneath that system's crushing weight.▼
==Interpretation==
▲Brecht wrote ''The Mother'' at a time when [[Hitler]] was gaining power in [[Germany]]. During a performance the [[Nazis]] arrested the leading actor to prevent the public from seeing the play.
▲In the play, Brecht utilizes narrative, irony, the juxtaposition of self-proclaimed "truths" to reveal their flaws, the concretizing of complex ideas into dramatic events, an understanding and simple presentation of human behaviour, and a comedic [[optimism]] that things can be changed and that reason and common sense will overcome fear and [[superstition]]. Vlassov is Brecht's entirely positive major character, who endures a long and difficult road to liberation.
▲''The Mother'' is Brecht's most elaborate use of his radically experimental ''[[Lehrstücke]]'', or
▲Between 1973 and 1975, placards quoting [[Richard Nixon]] and [[George Jackson (Black Panther)|George Jackson]] were hung on the set of the [[San Francisco Mime Troupe]]'s production of ''The Mother'', rather than the quotes by [[Karl Marx]] and [[Vladimir Lenin]] called for in the original script.<ref name=Bernstein>{{cite book |last1=Bernstein |first1=Lee |authorlink1= |last2= |first2= |authorlink2= |coauthors= |editor1-first= |editor1-last= |editor1-link= |others= |title=America is the Prison: Arts and Politics in Prison in the 1970s |url=http://books.google.com/books?id=a3yRlKxxDtkC&printsec=frontcover&source=gbs_atb#v=onepage&q&f=false |archiveurl= |archivedate= |format= |accessdate=July 12, 2011 |type= |edition= |series= |volume= |date= |year=2010 |month= |origyear= |publisher=University of North Carolina Press |location=Chapel Hill, North Carolina |language= |isbn=0-8078-7117-6, 9780807871171 |oclc= |doi= |id= |page=52|pages= |at= |trans_chapter= |chapter=The Age of Jackson: George Jackson and the Radical Critique of Incarceration |chapterurl=http://books.google.com/books?id=a3yRlKxxDtkC&lpg=PP1&pg=PA51#v=onepage&q&f=false |quote= |ref= |bibcode= |laysummary= |laydate= |separator= |postscript= |lastauthoramp=}}</ref>
==References==
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==Sources==
* [[John Willett|Willett, John]]. 1959. ''The Theatre of Bertolt Brecht: A Study from Eight Aspects.'' London: [[Methuen Publishing|Methuen]]. {{ISBN
==External links==
*[
{{Brecht plays|state=collapsed}}
{{The Mother}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Mother, The}}
▲[[Category:Plays by Bertolt Brecht]]
[[Category:Lehrstücke by Bertolt Brecht]]
[[Category:1932 plays]]
[[Category:Compositions by Hanns Eisler]]
[[Category:Adaptations of works by Maxim Gorky]]
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