About the work
The Mother is a learning-play (Lehrstück) by Bertolt Brecht, premiered in Berlin in 1932, with incidental music by Hanns Eisler. Based on Maxim Gorky's novel of the same name, it is among Brecht's most politically committed works in the style of epic theatre.
Plot
The story is set in pre-revolutionary Russia around 1905. The initially apolitical working-class widow Pelagea Vlasova worries about her son Pavel, who joins the revolutionary movement. Out of love for him she begins distributing leaflets and thus gradually becomes a convinced revolutionary herself. Even after Pavel's arrest and execution she does not give up but becomes a tireless fighter for the cause of the working class—the mother as an emblem of awakening class consciousness.
Cultural significance
The Mother is a key work of Brecht's didactic theatre, demonstrating the transformation of an ordinary person into a political subject. The collaboration with Hanns Eisler produced militant choruses and songs such as In Praise of Learning. Helene Weigel defined the title role. The work became a model for political teaching theatre and is among the most-discussed examples of Brecht's concept of engaged, instructive drama.