Woolwich’s historic First World War armaments factory will create a backdrop to a unique staging of Bertolt Brecht’s most famous play.

Mother Courage and Her Children is being put on by Greenwich and Lewisham Young People’s Theatre and the south London-based Teatre Vivo from September 5 to 21 at the Royal Arsenal.

The audience will become war refugees, engaging with a cast of actors and a 30-strong community chorus, as they are taken on a journey through the site and explore the human cost of surviving conflict through drama, poetry and song.

Brecht’s play is about a canteen woman who pulls her cart and three children after the army to attempt to profit from the Thirty Years’ War. It was one of the plays Brecht wrote as a counter to facism and Nazism and remains relevant in light of the 100 year anniversary of the First World War and modern conflicts in the middle east.

Tickets cost £12 (or £7 concessions) and are available at glypt.co.uk or on 020 8854 1316.