"Mother Courage and Her Children" is a great, sprawling, often-funny dramatic epic that requires patience from the average audience member.

If you haven't experienced the likes of author Bertolt Brecht before, I recommend you see this production and not judge it too quickly. Let it wash over you and think about it later.

We're thrown into the Thirty Years War. 1624. Chaos reigns. Human life is cheap. But basic goods bring a good price, and that's where Anna Fielding (guest actress Barbara Tarbuck) comes in.

She's known as Mother Courage because, as she explains, "I drove ... through cannon fire with 50 loaves of bread in my wagon. They were getting moldy, it was high time, I had no choice."

Mother is a survivor who travels the embattled lands with her canteen wagon and three adult children. Since she makes a living from war, her only enemy seems to be peace. By the end, the religious conflict touches her in a very personal way. But her sense of practicality never wavers.

You have to listen closely to pick up on the joy of the language. It's full of astute observation, breathtaking imagery, and savage humor.

Director Robert Benedetti expertly gets at the script's heart and mind. He punches up the comedy, makes sure the intellectual debate within the material is honored, and still manages to wring a good deal of poignancy from the events. (You don't often think of Brecht as "poignant," but Benedetti reminds us that he often is.)

Tarbuck is an intriguing central character. There's weary life in her face, and yet you can see she's a fighter.

Steve Rapella, as a general's cook who understands the profitability and practicality of war, creates an interesting portrait of a man who seems to have programmed himself (wisely) to not feel.

And Desiree Abeyta, as Courage's mute daughter, is, in many ways, the soul of the production. We see the horrors of war through her eyes. When she commits a heroic act at the end, Abeyta gets us to understand the progress of her character's transformation -- even though the actress doesn't have a line of dialogue. Abeyta reminds us that good acting is about thought, not words.

The show is a visual feast, in large part because of David Utley's versatile, three-quarters round set that gives us a feel for the squalor of the environment (as do his costumes), while always remaining pleasing to the eye.

Brecht doesn't do drama like anyone else. And that may bother those that like to be entrained by the familiar.

But Benedetti's production makes him accessible enough that I suspect a good many uninitiated audience members will at least come to recognize that the playwright is a unique voice. It's being heard loud and clear at the Nevada Conservatory Theatre.

Anthony Del Valle can be reached at DelValle@aol.com. You can write him c/o Las Vegas Review-Journal, P.O. Box 70, Las Vegas, NV 89125.