I have been visiting Shakespeare’s Globe in London at least once a year for the past twenty-five years, and have been a ‘friend’ for twenty-two of them. Each visit, whether be for a performance at what is known as the wooden ‘O’ or the smaller, indoor, candlelit Sam Wanamaker theatre, or another event like a study day, I have left with plenty to think about.

This last Saturday, the 30^th of May, I went to see their production of “Mother Courage and her children” not as you might expect from the Globe, by William Shakespeare, but by twentieth century German playwright Bertolt Brecht.

Translated by Anna Jordan, it tells of a woman fighting for survival for her and her children amid the backdrop of war by travelling and selling her wares. She does, of course, want to keep her children near, but one by one, each of them die in the most brutal way.

Brecht set his play during the thirty years war of the 17^th century, but wrote it in 1939 as world war two was brewing illustrating the horror from two different periods in time. This production highlights a timelessness with its detailed set, gory props, brilliant acting. The two sides in war are marked with colours rather than nations taking away the importance of victory, and bringing to the fore how suffering and deprivation of war is rife in any period of history, even in the present day.

Surprisingly, “Mother Courage” is a musical. The songs were part of the original script, but set to newly composed music. The songs add an extra layer to the rich texture of this play.

It made an uncomfortable watch in some ways, but a compelling one.