JOHN WILLETT
Biography
After graduating from Oxford University, Mr. [John] Willett studied music and stage design in Vienna and thought about becoming a stage designer. After service in the British Army during World War II, he worked as a journalist and eventually became the assistant to Arthur Crook, editor of The Times Literary Supplement. While there, he wrote an unsigned article about [Brecht] for The Times Literary Supplement of London. That led to a meeting with Brecht and to his working with him on the visit to London that year by the Berliner Ensemble.
Willett is an English author, translator and cultural historian and one of the world's leading authorities on Bertolt Brecht. Mr. Willett was one of the people primarily responsible for bringing Brecht to the attention of the English-speaking world and for assuring his position as a seminal theatrical figure of the 20th century. He was also was also a leader in recognizing the work of Brecht's 'silent collaborators.'
Adapted from The New York Times
Source: Unknown (Discogs)
Translation Version
Penguin Classics (1980)
Description, from Amazon: “The play is presented in John Willett's trusted translation.”
There is also a student version of the same text with some added resources. Description, from Amazon: “The play is translated by Brecht scholar John Willett who did more than anyone else to make Brecht's work available in the English language.”
Features “A north English cadence from the adapter's native Great Britain" (Introduction to the Penguin Classics Edition).
Other Translations of Brecht's Works
Cabaret Verboten
The Threepenny Opera
Drums in the Night
The Catch
The Decision
Baal
The Jewish Wife
The Tutor
Fear and Misery of the Third Reich
PARATEXTS
MUSIC
Willett produced a new, original set of lyrics in his translation of Mother Courage.
Many productions featured an original score that put to music Willett's lyrics. There is no found evidence of compositions produced in tandem with Willett's writing.
See "Criticism & Reviews" for more on the music of productions of Willett's translation.
TEXT/PRODUCTION
IN THE PENGUIN CLASSICS EDITION
- Foreword by Olympia Dukakis
- Introduction to the Penguin Classics Edition by Norman Roessler
- Introduction by John Willett and Ralph Manheim
- Notes and Variants
- Texts by Brecht
- Note
- The Story
- Three Diary Notes
- The Mother Courage Model
- Two Ways of Playing Mother Courage
- Misfortune in Itself Is a Poor Teacher
- Editorial Notes
"In clear reaction to [World War II], Brecht wrote his great play about a war which would ravage devastatingly across great tracts of Europe, creating heroes and profiteers, imposing order and ideologies, and leaving the self-sentimentalizing 'little people' - particularly of Germany - as blindly unaware as they were at its start." (Introduction)
"Our translation therefore sets out to tackle this key problem by using a somewhat analogous artificial diction, based this time on those north English cadences which can reflect a similarly dry, gloomily humorous approach to great events... The aim must be to find a language which will keep the play moving across twelve years of history, a great slice of devastated Europe and, last but not least, three or four hours in the theatre." (Introduction)
CRITICISM & REVIEWS
"There's a great British translation by John Willett and Ralph Manheim that's very very actable and playable, but it's done in a kind of Lancastrian, Mancunian, 'nowt'-kinda dialect, and it's useless in America. There was no good American-English version of Mother Courage..."
- Tony Kushner (The Austin Chronicle)
INTERVIEWS
None found.
MEDIA & PRODUCTIONS
2015 Classic Stage Company Production Photo
The production adapted John Willett's translation with new music by Duncan Sheik and set the play in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The interpretation was subject to critical and creative feedback.
Source: Joan Marcus (American Theatre)
Irondale Ensemble Project Production Poster (2021)
The production was performed as a radio drama, with a cast of five portraying the many roles found in Willett's text.
