THEATRE AND TRANSLATION RECEPTION OF BERTOLT BRECHT’S PLAY “MUTTER COURAGE UND IHRE KINDER” IN USSR AND RUSSIA

Key words: Bertolt Brecht, play “Mutter Courage und Ihre Kinder”, epic theatre, theatre reception, translation reception, Boris Zakhoder, Vsevolod Rozanov The article is devoted to the theatre and translation reception of the play “Mutter Courage und Ihre Kinder” by German playwright and director Bertold Brecht in the USSR and Russia in the second half of XX-XXI centuries. The research was conducted with the aim of scientific description of the Bertolt Brecht phenomenon and, in particular, one of his most famous plays from the perspective of Russian theatre workers and translators. Brecht's name is firmly embedded in the history of drama and theatre as a whole. He elaborated a concept of epic theatre that fundamentally changed the view on performance art functions. According to Brecht, all the components of the theatre –actors, scenery, music, light, should appeal not to the emotions of the audience, but to their thoughts, should stimulate critical reflection on the actual reality. The paper considers the innovative ideas of Bertolt Brecht on the social and aesthetic role of theatre, the peculiarities of the poetics of the play “Mutter Courage und Ihre Kinder”, the history of theatrical performances of the play in the USSR and Russia and the characteristics of two translations of the play into Russian by Solomon Apt and the tandem of Boris Zakhoder and Vsevolod Rozanov.