J u n e 1 - 1 9 , 2 0 2 2

MOTHER COURAGE AND HER CHILDREN

Writer Bertolt BrechtTranslator Tony KushnerDirector Damien Millar

Performed by Bagryana Popov, Kate Bayley, Richard Bligh, Rodrigo

Calderón, Tom Considine, Lakshmi Ganapathy, Nathan Milne, and Claude Sarmiento

Assistant Director and Choreographer Michael Lindner

Set and Costume Designer Lara Week

Lighting Designer Shane GrantComposers

Damien Millar & Paul DoogoodStage Manager Kat CarringtonProduced by

Lara Week and Bagryana PopovSound Design and Song Production by

Damien MillarSong Coach:

Bagryana PopovImage by

Darren Gill

mother courage and her childrenDirector’s Note:While Brecht uses the Thirty Year War as an analogy for WW2, he also knew that the naming and discrete numbering systems we give to war produces a fiction. War is continuous. The second world war is a direct consequence of the first. The first is continuous with the Balkan War. Russia’s war in Afghanistan is directly continuous with Australia’s.

The play reflects on the nature of war and how it works. Its economic guts. Its engines. This seems vital now that we’ve just come out of our longest war – which we lost – and we’ve done so with bugger all reflection.

We use doubling to add to the play’s reflective qualities. I’ve never seen this play performed by less than twelve actors, but there’s something rich in doubling for me. It’s like a physical parable of how many possibilities individuals contain. It adds dreamlike force and Brecht was very influenced by psychoanalysis.

Brecht’s plays are largely about how individuals, whatever their values, are useless and small in the face of the world. Not surprising for a former medic in the first world war. It’s the paradox of some of his major characters, like Courage or Galileo. They are outsized relative to other characters, in vitality, brains, cunning or desires, but are always fundamentally undersized in relation to the world.

My favourite character in this play is an unnamed soldier who tries to move a cannon all by himself but can’t. ‘You can tell them I tried,’ he says. Courage says she will, but knows there will be nobody to tell. It’s a kind of epitaph for all of us.

Our Mother Courage features experienced and inexperienced people, disabled creators, nerds and roughheads with soft hearts: a small universe. The group, born from the ashes of La Trobe’s drama department, is the show’s beating heart, and theatre, if it is to do anything, needs to have a heart.

AcknowledgementsThank you to the artists who took part in creative developments over the past four years and helped shape this production: Blayne Welsh, Meredith Rogers, Khisraw Jones-Shukoor, Joseph Sherman, Majid Shokor, Rachel Pitt Lancaster, Cole McKenna, Morgan-Belle Bradshaw, Thomas Matthyssen, Kamarra Bell-Wykes. Thank you to the friends and volunteers who have helped us bump in the theatre, sew costumes, forage the back streets of Yarraville, and collect things from strangers all over Melbourne: Giovanna Yate Gonzalez, Jarman Oakley, Marco Pezzimenti, Juan Camilo Riaño Rodriguez, Hannah Strout, Rain Okpamen, Penny Harpham, Polash Larsen, Farida Fleming, David Week, Oli Fleming Week, Dana Bolitho, Rhys Hollow, Anastassia Krstevska, Kat Eyres-Herd, Cole McKenna, and Alexi O’Keefe. Thank you to the actors who have volunteered to step in should a cast member need to isolate during our season: Caroline Lee, Greg Ulfan, Khisraw Jones-Shukoor, Hugo Gutteridge, Molly Holohan. Thank you Rob Conkie, Pip Grummet, Menka Malinov and Owen Dalton. And to the wonderful staff at La Mama, thank you for all you do to make La Mama home.

Bagryana would like to dedicate her part of this work to her late piano teacher Sofya Vainer, a great artist, who inspired Bagryana to become an artist and made it seem possible.

Sound and music creditsConquer Death, opening and closing variations: Composed &

played by Paul Doogood (PD) and Damien Millar (DM)The Soldier’s Song: Composed & played by DM

Yvette’s Song: Composed & played by PDThe Pastor’s Song: Composed & played by PD

The Song of the Great Capitulation: Composed & played by DMConquer Death, country and Venga variations:

Composed by DM and PD, played by DMThe Song of Solomon:

Composed by DM, played by DM & companyThe Song Heard While Travelling: Composed and played by DM

Bertolt Brecht: PlaywrightGerman-born playwright, poet and director, Bertolt Brecht was born in Augsburg in 1898. In 1930, the premier of Brecht and Weill’s The Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny caused a riot as the increasingly influential Nazi party objected to its morality and critical tone. When Hitler came to power in 1933, Brecht and his wife, actress Helene Weigel, left Germany, eventually settling in the USA in 1941. During the war years, he wrote many of his best known plays, including The Life of Galileo, The Caucasian Chalk Circle, and Mother Courage and Her Children. He returned to Europe in 1947 and shortly after his arrival formed the Berliner Ensemble. Brecht died in Berlin in 1956 and remains a hugely influential theatre practitioner throughout the world.

Tony Kushner: TranslatorTony Kushner is an American playwright, best known for his two-part epic, Angels In America: A Gay Fantasia on National Themes. His other plays include A Bright Room Called Day, Slavs!, and Homebody/Kabul. In “After Angels,” a profile of Tony Kushner published in The New Yorker, John Lahr wrote: “[Kushner] gives voice to characters who have been rendered powerless by the forces of circumstances – a drag queen dying of AIDS, an uneducated Southern maid, contemporary Afghans – and his attempt to see all sides of their predicament has a sly subversiveness. He forces the audience to identify with the marginalized – a humanizing act of the imagination.” Kushner is the recipient of a Pulitzer Prize for Drama, two Tony Awards, three Obie Awards, two Oscar nominations, a Spirit of Justice Award from the Gay and Lesbian Advocates and Defenders, a Cultural Achievement Award from The National Foundation for Jewish Culture, among many others.

Damien Millar: Director, co-ComposerDamien is a director, dramaturge, and writer of five award-winning plays. The Modern International Dead (2008) was built on his research in contemporary war zones and talking with returned soldiers and intelligence officers. It won the WA Premier’s Book Award and others, and was described by Tony Kushner as “containing the entire world.” Marlin (2014), produced by MTC, won a Drama Victoria award, an AWGIE, was nominated for a Green Room and three Helpmanns, and toured Sweden in translation for nearly a year. Damien graduated from NIDA’s directing course in 2003. His performance life began in big musicals and HIV-AIDS activism.

Bagryana Popov: Actor (Mother Courage), co-ProducerBagryana is an award-winning theatre artist, working as director, actor, dramaturg and performance maker. Much of her work has examined themes of place and displacement, refugee experience and trauma as a result of war. Bagryana directed the premiere season of Samah Sabawi’s play THEM at La Mama Courthouse, which will be remounted this year as a touring production. Her project Uncle Vanya was presented as part of the Adelaide Festival 2019 at The Cedars, the estate of Sir Hans Heysen. As an actor, her most recent work was the solo Anna, which was written by Bagryana and directed by John Bolton, presented at La Mama Courthouse 2019.

Tom Considine: Actor (Cook + other roles) Tom graduated from Flinders University Drama Centre in 1975. Since then he has appeared with many companies including The Melbourne Theatre Company, Playbox, The Sydney Theatre Company, The State Theatre of S.A., Anthill, Here Theatre, The Mill Theatre, Eureka!, La Mama, The Eleventh Hour and Not Yet Its Difficult. In 2003 he received a Green Room award for his performance in Stephen Sewell’s Myth, Propaganda and Disaster in Nazi Germany and Contemporary America. He was nominated for a Green Room award for his performance of Falstaff in 2012. He appeared as Lucky in 2017 for The Eleventh Hour in Waiting for Godot.

Richard Bligh: Actor (The Chaplain + other roles) Richard is a Melbourne actor and has worked mainly in theatre over the past 30 years. He’s appeared many times at the MTC, La Mama and Eleventh Hour Theatre over the years. He was a founding member of the Old Van Theatre company and has appeared in most of their productions. Richard last performed at the 2019 Adelaide Festival in Bagryana Popov’s production of Uncle Vanya. Richard has done film and TV work. Most recently he played Mr Butler in Miss Fishers’ Murder Mysteries at the ABC.

Lakshmi Ganapathy: Actor (Kattrin + other roles) Lakshmi is graduate of the Bachelor of Creative Arts (Theatre and Media Studies) at La Trobe University. Recently, she was part of PONYCAM’s Paradise Lots, staged for Darebin FUSE and War-Rak/Banksia Festival in 2021. Avidly involved with La Trobe Student Theatre since 2018, she played the Clown in The Winter’s Tale (La Mama 2020, DIR: Bob Pavlich), a collaboration with Hong Kong SHAX Theatre Group for AsiaTOPA. She directed, performed in and wrote for the 2019 and 2020 LTU Revue, and directed Tom Basden’s There is a War for their 2021 Activate season. Lakshmi is also an emerging journalist, creating content for La Trobe University, RMITV and C31.

Nathan Milne: Actor (Swiss Cheese + other roles)Nathan is an actor and writer who has been passionate about acting since Year 7. His previous credits include Everything’s Gone Pearshape (David Williamson Theatre, 2013), Many Faces of Us (2015, David Williamson Theatre), All Of Us Or None (2015, David Williamson Theatre), Burn but don’t cry (2019, Activate Season), All Kinds of Chaos (2020, La Trobe STF) The Red Balloon (2020, La Mama North), The Illusion (2021, Moat Festival) and The Six Lines Project (2022, Moat Festival). In May, his short play Lance Vs. The Black Dog was performed by theatre group Quiet Roar for their short play season Softly, Softly.

Kate Bayley: Actor (Yvette + other roles) Kate graduated with Honours in Theatre/ Drama from La Trobe University (2018) and continues to hone her craft at the Justin Lehmann Studios. Her most notable achievement is her debut solo work, Through Her Eyes, produced as her Honours performance project under the supervision of Bagryana Popov. Written and performed by Kate, the piece explores one-to-one, site-specific and immersive theatre, creating an intimate setting for its audience. Theatre credits include: By the end of the year (dir. Joachim Matschoss), Lonely People… (La Mama), The Cocoon (dir. Kotryna Gesait), and The light within the night (dir. Bob Pavlich, Asiatopia International).

Rodrigo Calderón, Actor (Eilif + other roles) Born in El Salvador, Rodrigo studied a bachelor of Dramatic Arts from Universidad del Salvador in Buenos Aires, Argentina (2010). He has since immersed himself in directing, teaching, performing, and investigating different movement-based forms. Since migrating to Melbourne in 2014, Rodrigo has been a collaborator of The Thursday Group ensemble, an ongoing theatre laboratory of Tadashi Suzuki’s theatre technique; Tony Yap Company, an experimental dance theatre company transforming ancient Asian Shamanic Trance Dance practice into a post-modern medium; and part of the 5AngryMen, an extremely physical plein-air theatre company committed to commentary on contemporary culture, human nature and relationships.

Claude Sarmiento, Actor (Recruiting Officer + other roles)Claude is an actor and graduate of La Trobe University’s Bachelor of Arts (French and Theatre). Claude’s involvement in La Trobe Student Theatre and Film saw him act in numerous productions; most notably, Lazarus Won’t Get Out of Bed (2018), The Drag (2019) and Blackrock (2020). In 2021, he also directed a production of Rebecca Lister’s 2:20AM, and most recently, Tom Holloway’s Red Sky Morning. Claude is currently studying a Master of Arts and Cultural Management at Deakin University, hoping to contribute to the growth and diversity of Australia’s arts industry.

Michael Lindner: Assistant Director, ChoreographerMichael is a musical theatre performer who last appeared in the tenth anniversary production of Billy Elliot the Musical, which sadly shut down due to, well, let’s not mention the C word. Further credits are South Pacific, Mary Poppins, Miss Saigon, Priscilla Queen of the Desert, Grease, Avenue Q, The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee and Scrooge. For The Production Company, Michael performed in Guys and Dolls, Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, Damn Yankees, Oklahoma, Annie Get Your Gun and High Society. Personal highlights in performing are the Australian premiere of [title of show], playing Hunter as well as one of the title characters in Archie & Mehitable at Theatreworks. Self and co devised works include Michael and the Mascs, Cole’s Girls, No, Really, I’m Straight, all performed as part of Midsumma.

Lara Week: Set and Costume Designer / co-ProducerLara is a designer for performance and creative producer. Her design credits include ANNA (La Mama Courthouse), Caliban (Western Edge Youth Arts, Malthouse Theatre), Night Sings Its Songs (La Mama Theatre), and two seasons of Samah Sabawi’s award-winning play Tales Of A City By The Sea (La Mama Courthouse) which she co-produced in 2016 with Daniel Clark and toured to Adelaide, Sydney, and Kuala Lumpur. In 2019 she produced and designed the premiere season of Samah Sabawi’s play THEM at La Mama Courthouse, directed by Bagryana Popov. THEM was shortlisted for the NSW and Victorian Premiere’s Literary Awards, nominated for four Green Room awards, and remounted in 2021 as part of the VCE Drama Playlist.

Shane Grant: Lighting DesignerShane has been acknowledged as an “Absolute Genius” (Theatre People, 30/7/16) for his lighting design of Sarah Kane’s 4:48 Psychosis. Shane earned a Bachelor of Arts (Performing Arts) from the Victorian College of the Arts, Melbourne University, some time ago. Shane is an artistic director with Metanoia theatre. Shane has: toured the world; operated venues and technically managed venues (Gasworks, Mechanics Institute Brunswick, St Martins); written shows; performed shows; sold tickets to shows; produced shows; sold drinks in the foyer at shows; built sets; built theatres; and given the St Crispin’s Day speeches that get everyone over the line on opening night—sometimes all with the same production.

Paul Doogood: Co-Composer Starting out in community theatre, Paul found his way into professional children’s theatre, working as a puppeteer with Polyglot Puppet Theatre, with whom he toured extensively throughout Australia and overseas until the early noughties. He resumed working in the trade he’d picked up straight out of school in the 1970s and has only recently returned to the stage while studying a Bachelor of Creative Arts at La Trobe University. He has acted in productions of Vernon God Little and The Winter’s Tale with the La Trobe Student Theatre and Film group. Long a keen musician and songwriter, Paul also played and sang in both productions, and was Musical Director in the latter. Mother Courage sees him taking on a composer’s role in a production for the first time.

Kat Carrington: Stage ManagerKat is a creative producer and event coordinator. She has spent the last few years facilitating the La Trobe University Student Theatre and Film program, working with La Trobe students to create their own theatrical shows and other creative events and practices. She produced an international co-production of The Winter’s Tale (dir. Bob Pavlich) with Hong Kong SHAX Theatre Group presented at La Mama Theatre as part of AsiaTOPA 2020. She is currently the Operations Manager at Schoolhouse Studios, a collaborative not-for-profit creative studios and events space.

Office Phone: (03) 9347 6948Office Hours: Mon – Fri | 10:30am – 5:30pm205 Faraday Street, Carlton VIC 3053 www.lamama.com.au | info@lamama.com.au

La Mama Theatre is on traditional land of the people of the Kulin Nation. We give our respect to the Elders of these traditional lands and to all First Nations people past, present and future. We acknowledge all events take place on stolen lands and that sovereignty was never ceded.

La Mama is financially assisted by the Australian Government through the Restart Investment to Sustain and Expand (RISE) Fund - an Australian Government initiative, the Victorian Government through Creative Victoria, and the City of Melbourne through the Arts and Creative Partnerships Program.

We are grateful to all our philanthropic partners and donors, advocates, volunteers, audiences, artists and our entire community for helping us rebuild La Mama. Thank you!