Laura Bradley studied as an undergraduate and postgraduate at St Edmund Hall, Oxford. She then held a Junior Research Fellowship at Merton College, Oxford. She is now a Lecturer in German at the University of Edinburgh.

• Introduction


• 1: From Nizhni-Novgorod to Moabit: the genesis and première of Die Mutter, 1931-2


• 2: Model or museum exhibit? Die Mutter at the Berliner Ensemble, 1951-71


• 3: The politics of performance: Die Mutter in West and East Berlin, 1970 and 1974


• 4: Translation and transference since 1932


• 5: Die Mutter and German reunification, 1988-2003


• Conclusion


• Glossary

This study focuses on The Mother, Bertolt Brecht's most overtly political play and the only play which he staged in the Weimar Republic. Through detailed analysis of archival material, Bradley explores how Brecht's theatre practice developed and how it has subsequently been received and challenged by other directors, in and beyond Germany.