M[other] Courage

Polish director Marta Górnicka has dedicated herself to the chorus. She wants to reclaim it for the spoken theatre. While the chorus had a counterpart in the tragedies of antiquity, Górnicka's choruses are at the centre of her works, in other words, alone on stage. Even though ›alone‹ in this case still means that she assembles choruses of more than 20 people for her productions.

Her works are always based on a self-contained libretto, which she expands, edits and collages, originating from a literary text, with regard to different perspectives and issues. For her Braunschweig piece, Górnicka takes her inspiration from the theme of the enterprising mother in Bertolt Brecht's Mother Courage who makes her profit from war, but also sees her children perish in it, and examines that subject for our present: Who benefits from war today? What price must be paid?

Her chorus represents many voices and scrutinises the stereotypes of groups that we belong to and those we oppose. The chorus cites voices of mothers and children, demonstrators and counter-demonstrators, Wutbürgern (enraged citizens), fighters and fans. Familiar formulations, sayings are chanted, alienated, lampooned. It's certainly not Brecht, but rather a powerful chorus that is overwhelming, aggressive, surprising and, time and again, beautiful.

The director and singer Marta Górnicka is a graduate from The Aleksandar Zelwerowicz Academy of Dramatic Art, the Frdyrick Chopin University of Music in Warsaw, the Warsaw University and the Academy for Dramatic Arts in Krakow. She was nominated for her work M(other) Courage for the FAUST award in the category directing drama in 2016.

We would like to thank the Polnische Institut  for their support during the Festival Uniting Backgrounds – Theater on Democracy