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theatre · Saturday 31 October 2026 · 8:00pm 
Mother Courage presented by Blue Raincoat Theatre Company
At Ballina Arts Centre · Barrett Street, Ballina, Co. Mayo
At Ballina Arts Centre · Barrett Street, Ballina, Co. Mayo
Blue Raincoat Theatre Company brings its production of “Mother Courage” to Ballina Arts Centre on Saturday 31 October 2026, directed by Niall Henry. The play follows Anna Fierling, a merchant navigating wartime Europe during the Thirty Years’ War, as she tries to keep her business and her three children safe amid the conflict. The production is described as questioning the justification of warfare and revealing the hypocrisy of a war fought on religious grounds, using Fierling’s story to examine how ordinary people are ground down by a war economy that never quite touches those who profit from it.
Blue Raincoat is one of the more established touring theatre companies working in the west of Ireland, and a Brecht production of this scale is a rarer booking for Ballina Arts Centre than its usual mix of amateur drama, family shows and touring comedy, making it a highlight of the venue’s autumn drama programme. The piece runs two hours, so it is a substantial night at the theatre rather than a light one-act.
Brecht wrote the play as an argument against the idea that ordinary people can profit from war without eventually being destroyed by it, and Blue Raincoat’s staging is built around that tension between Fierling’s business instincts and the mounting cost to her family. Audiences familiar with the company’s earlier work in Sligo and around Connacht will recognise its stripped-back, ensemble-focused approach to classic European drama.
Ballina Arts Centre is on Barrett Street in Ballina town centre, close to the town’s main car parks. Ballina has regular Bus Éireann services from Castlebar and Sligo.
Heading to Ballina Arts Centre in Ballina? Mayo has plenty more to see. Read the Ballina area guide, find what else is on, and explore the towns and villages nearby.