Mother Courage

One big dramatic role. Actors from across the world tell us what the part means and what it means to them. This time: Brecht's Mother Courage.

Actors Fiona Shaw, Liz Carr, Maggie Steed, Michelle Terry and Ursula Yovich reflect on playing Bertolt Brecht's iconic character, who drags her cart and her children through the devastation of war, selling whatever she can to survive while losing all three children in the process.

Brecht, the German playwright and poet, wrote Mother Courage and Her Children in 1939 while in exile, as Hitler was preparing for war. Set during the Thirty Years' War of 1618-1648, it is often described as Brecht's masterpiece and one of the greatest anti-war plays ever written. So how have actors approached this iconic role, one that has been performed in many different contexts yet remains constantly relevant?

Liz Carr, known for her role in Silent Witness, talks about playing Mother Courage as a disabled woman, with her wheelchair serving as the cart alongside an all-disabled cast. In her first professional acting role, she recalls how the strength required to perform in this three-hour play gave her the confidence she needed to see a future for herself in acting.

Michelle Terry, Artistic Director of Shakespeare's Globe, performed the role in a recent production and, as this was her first experience of Brecht, shares what she learned from it and how it changed her as both a person and an actor.

Fiona Shaw, who played Mother Courage to a huge audience at the National Theatre in London, remembers the gruelling nature of the part and reflects on how its anti-war message still resonates powerfully today.

And Ursula Yovich, who played the role in an all-Indigenous First Nations cast in Queensland, Australia, describes transposing the story to that setting and how Mother Courage's struggle for survival can be interpreted through the lens of her own life experience.

Producer: Eliza Lomas
Series development: Sam Grist and Camellia Sinclair
Editor: Emma Harding
For BBC Audio in Bristol

Archive:
Mother Courage and Her Children, BBC Radio 4, 16 July 2003
Mother Courage - Maggie Steed
Music and adapted lyrics - Tim Sutton
Director - Turan Ali

Mother Courage and Her Children, BBC Radio 3, 1990
Mother Courage - Sheila Hancock
Director - Jeremy Mortimer

Clip from Mother Courage and Her Children at The Globe, June 2026
Mother Courage - Michelle Terry
Director - Elle While

Clip from Mother Courage and Her Children, Queensland Theatre Company, May 2013
Mother Courage - Ursula Yovich
Director - Wesley Enoch