
by Helen O'Sullivan, Greenbelt Music Group Administrator
Friday night was the first full run-through of the Bertolt Brecht play ‘Mother Courage and Her Children’ (Tony Kushner translation) in the 1100 seater Olivier Theatre at the National in London. There was a preview the previous night but due to lack of technical rehearsals, only two-thirds of the play was performed. To be honest, it’s probably not the sort of play I would normally have chosen to go to, but Duke Special and his band are part of the production and that made it impossible to resist!
I was a bit apprehensive about the story set in the 1600s during the thirty year war – the synopsis on Wikipedia sounds quite dark and depressing but the performance was lively, engaging and humorous in parts. There’s some discussion on whether it is actually an anti-war play, Mother Courage and her children are depicted profiting from the war but are ultimately victims of it like so many others; it’s certainly thought-provoking. Fiona Shaw was outstanding in the lead role of Mother Courage, and, of course, the music was excellent with Duke Special alternating between piano, drum and accordion and assisted by his bandmates on percussion, guitar, clarinet and saxophone, and double bass. The musicians are an integral part of the performance, rather than just playing background music at the side of the stage, as are the stagehands and the whole thing has a deliberately chaotic feel to it because of that. There is a song in most of the scenes with Duke singing alongside the main characters and literally centre stage for a few of the numbers. Duke’s percussionist, Chip Bailey, is led by Mother Courage to the front at one point and she also shimmies against self-confessed babe-magnet Ben Castle! Duke looks right at home on the theatre stage and sings beautifully – I could hear people commenting on what a good voice he had during the interval.
The play is long at 3 and a half hours, including an interval, although that was the first run through so it may get a bit leaner. The official opening night is 17th September and it runs until 8th December. Tickets are selling well but there are still a few £10 Travelex seats available.
Greenbelters in the London area will also be interested to know that Duke and his band are going to be playing after every Friday evening show from 2nd October until 4th December (and one on the evening of Saturday 3rd October – possibly to be extended to every Saturday although this looks unlikely as they also have a matinee performance on that day), and you don’t need to have a ticket for the play to get in to the gig. The gigs will be held in the main foyer of the National and entry is free.




Hannah Maiden (pictured above at Greenbelt '08 with daughter Eve) is a long-time Greenbelter, from Newcastle, who’s involved in campaigning with one of our key partners, Christian Aid. We asked her how she got involved with Christian Aid and how she’s getting on.




