Poet-Playwright Ntozake Shange (FOR COLORED GIRLS) adapted Bertolt Brecht’s classic drama in 1980, transposing the action from Europe during the Thirty Years War to the American Southwest after the Civil War. Mother Courage struggles to survive the war by profiting from it but ends up paying the ultimate cost.

The play, which earned Shange an Obie Award, has never been published or performed since its premiere at the Public Theater in 1980. Now pulled from the archives at the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture of the New York Public Library for this production, Shange’s adaptation puts a uniquely American spin on Brecht’s classic drama that forces us to ask how, in the darkest of times, do we survive with our humanity intact?

Featuring the Southern Rep Theatre Acting Company, the cast of MOTHER COURAGE AND HER CHILDREN will include Sarah Nansubuga as Mother Courage, Ily Bernabel, Jeffrey Darensbourg, Lola Darling, Leland Ensminger, Joe Fredo, Rahim Glaspy, LaKesha Glover, Mack Guillory, Rodney Graham, Donald Lewis, Mona Naswari, Josef Pons, Elexis Selmon, and Lawrence Weber.

This production contains racialized violence, racially charged language, racist terms, and theatrical haze.

Performances
Fri Jan 24 @ 7:30 (Preview Performance)
Sat Jan 25 @ 7:30 (Preview Performance)
Sun Jan 26 @ 3:00 (additional seating has been opened)
Thurs Jan 30 @ 7:30
Fri Jan 31 @ 7:30
Sat Feb 1 @ 7:30
Sun Feb 2 @ 3:00
Mon Feb 3 @ 7:30
Thurs Feb 6 @ 7:30
Fri Feb 7 @ 7:30
Sat Feb 8 @ 7:30 – Show must close!

Click here for digital version of the MOTHER COURAGE AND HER CHILDREN program