Mysuru: To commemorate the Russian Revolution, Samudaya, Mysuru, will be staging Brecht’s play ‘Thayi’ at Kalamandira on Aug. 12 and 13 at 7 pm.

The play, directed by S.R. Ramesh, has been translated into Kannada by K.P. Vasudevan. Former Rangayana Director H. Janardhan has scored music for the play. The entry tickets, priced at Rs. 100 each, will be available at the venue on both the days.

About the Play

Brecht’s “The Mother” is perhaps his early steps and hence his most explicitly communist play. However the play is meaningful even today because the central character of the play, the Mother, derived from Maxim Gorky’s novel, is one of the most positive characters. She grows from apathy to involvement.

The Mother is Brecht’s most elaborate use of his radically experimental Lehrstücke, or “learning plays”, which he describes as “a piece of anti-metaphysical, materialistic, non-Aristotelian drama.” The play suggests that to become a good mother involves more than just complaining about the price of soup; rather, one must struggle against it, not only for her and her family’s sake, but for the sake of all working families.

The play has garnered continued recognition for its forensic, witty and, some would say, humanist critique of capitalism seen through the experiences of those obliged, as Brecht saw it, to live beneath that system’s crushing weight.