The play Mother is about the struggle of a woman named Pelagea Vlassova for liberty and freedom, against the chaos of Russia’s troubled government. She is helped by a group of working class revolutionaries who work in a low paid factory and are not happy with the way the government is making them work hard for low pay.

Vlassova is illiterate and who struggles to take care of her son. Then she gets involved with her son's political movement and starts to feel that she’s part of something. Vlassova learns how to read and write and is drawn in with the other revolutionaries. Pelagea’s son is eventually killed but she continues in the struggle.

The play was adapted by Ted Willis and first produced in 1961 in Croydon, Surrey. It was based on Maxim Gorky’s novel of the same name which was written in 1932.

Disambiguation

A Mother is a play by Constance Congdon based on a Maxim Gorky's play "Vassa Zheleznova".

Die Mutter (The Mother) is a play by Bertolt Brecht