Multi award-winning Josie Lawrence, one of the UK’s best-loved actresses and comedians is to star in a new production of Brecht’s 1939 classic Mother Courage and Her Children, running at London’s Southwark Playhouse from 2 November to 9 December 2017, with a press night on Monday 6 November.
Josie Lawrence said:
“I first read Mother Courage when I was an 18-year-old drama student and immediately fell in love with the play. Now I feel ready to play her. It’s a major tick on my theatrical bucket list.”
Mother Courage and Her Children by Bertolt Brecht is translated by Pulitzer Prize-winning Tony Kushner, whose critically acclaimed, sold-out production of Angels in America at the National Theatre was broadcast live to cinemas around the UK this week.
In a land ravaged by war, Mother Courage pulls her cart with her three children in the wake of the army, trading with soldiers and attempting to make profit from the war. Widely considered to be one of the greatest plays of the 20th century, Mother Courage and Her Children has been described as the greatest anti-war play of all time. It remains a timely exploration of displacement, war weariness and invisible enemies. It mirrored then, as it does now, the growing fear at the ever-advancing threat of terror infiltrating our everyday lives and our desire to protect ourselves and what is ours at any cost.
Mother Courage and Her Children is directed by Hannah Chissick, returning to Southwark Playhouse after the success of the musical Side Show, and is produced by Danielle Tarento, whose recent successes at the same venue include the UK premieres of Grey Gardens (with Sheila Hancock and Jenna Russell), Titanic, the world premiere of Gods and Monsters and Chekhov’s Three Sisters reworked for the 21st century by award-winning playwright Anya Reiss.
The new production is designed by Barney George, with music by Duke Special arranged by David Randall. Further casting is to be announced.
