The unimaginable journey: Time and spatial boundaries in Bertolt Brecht’s Mother Courage and Zinnie Harris’ The Wheel

Fowler, Dawn M.

Abstract

This paper considers the respective journeys of the central female protagonist in Brecht’s Mother Courage and Zinnie Harris’ more recent The Wheel (Traverse Theatre, 2011). Both plays trace the experience of war on ordinary working women as they assume care of children and enter into a state of constant travel to avoid an increasingly pervasive war as it spreads across Europe.

Interestingly, I argue, Harris follows Brecht in his use of epic theatre to present both the historical horror of war against a backdrop of day to day drudgery, where the finding of food and shelter becomes part of the daily routine of survival. Both Mother Courage and The Wheel’s central protagonist, Beatriz, are forced to dislocate themselves from a permanent home and enter into an unstable state of flux as they crisscross national boundaries that are in a perpetual state of transformation. Where Harris’ play goes further, however, is in its jumping of both real-time and spatial borders. Beatriz’s nightmarish, cyclical journey encompasses the major conflict zones of the twentieth century, as she endlessly encounters war after war.

The nature of my intervention in this paper is twofold. Firstly, I aim to compare the use of epic theatre in these innovative theatrical approaches to women and their crossing of boundaries. Secondly, I will analyse the use of a consistently threatening and intensifying conflict as dramatic device, paying particular attention to: the use of literal and metaphorical demarcation, masculine/feminine dichotomy in the conflict zone, and the enactment of the impact of war on journeying women.

Citation

Fowler, D. M. (2012, July). The unimaginable journey: Time and spatial boundaries in Bertolt Brecht’s Mother Courage and Zinnie Harris’ The Wheel. Paper presented at International Women and War Project, Hydra, Greece

• Presentation Conference Type: Conference Paper (unpublished)
• Conference Name: International Women and War Project
• Conference Location: Hydra, Greece
• Start Date: Jul 1, 2012
• End Date: Jul 1, 2012
• Peer Reviewed: Not Peer Reviewed
• Keywords: time and spatial boundaries, Bertolt Brecht, Mother Courage, Zinnie Harris, The Wheel
• Public URL: https://uwe-repository.worktribe.com/output/945756
• Additional Information: Title of Conference or Conference Proceedings : The International Women and War Project