plays
The Tutor by Bertolt Brecht
RevSocialist اش... — Thu, 08/19/2010 - 13:44
This play (55pgs) by Bertolt Brecht is about the subservience of education to the demands and interests of the upper classes, using as a metaphor a german tutor to the nobility during the 1700's. And as the main character points out at the beginning of the play, just as previously tutors, teachers, and professors were subservient to the nobility, now they are subservient to the bourgeois, and on the whole make sure to teach what they want them to.
One was Nude and One wore Tails by Dario Fo
RevSocialist اش... — Thu, 08/19/2010 - 11:34
This short play (32pgs) by Italian marxist Dario Fo is a satiric take on the role that clothes play in a capitalist, classist society. It makes the point that the respect and deference that is shown to people who simply wear certain types of clothes is an absurd and illogical situation, just another reason why capitalism needs to be smashed! Fo also points out the vast difference in attitude that the police will adopt in regard to someone dressed like a worker, and someone who has on a suit, even if it is a worker in a suit or a rich man in workers' clothes!
Pedro and the Captain by Mario Benedetti
RevSocialist اش... — Thu, 08/19/2010 - 11:09
This fascinating play (85pgs) by Mario Benedetti is about torture, and has found a lot of praise from comrades who went through the horrible ordeal of torture at the hands of the amerikkkan-trained security forces in South America. To introduce it, I think it would be best to put here the introduction which Benedetti wrote for this play:
Orgasmo Adulto Escapes from the Zoo by Dario Fo and Franca Rame
RevSocialist اش... — Wed, 08/18/2010 - 22:57
This collection of eight small plays (72pgs) written by Italian marxist Dario Fo and his wife Franca Rame is some of the best radical feminist literature that I personally have ever read. These short plays are all independent of each other, but they were meant to be performed consecutively as part of one performance, with a general introduction at the beginning.
The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui by Bertolt Brecht
RevSocialist اش... — Fri, 08/13/2010 - 13:49
This play (121pg) by German Marxist Bertolt Brecht was written in 1941 during Brecht's exile from nazi Germany. It is an allegoricall play that uses a ganster's (Arturo Ui's) rise to power as an allegory to the rise to power of Hitler. It is a very interesting play, in that it both satirizes Hitler, a mediocre if not stupid person at everything he put his hand to before his final rise to power, and yet it explains his rise to power in a simple, very understandable way.
Johan Padan and the "Discovery" of the Americas by Dario Fo
RevSocialist اش... — Fri, 04/30/2010 - 15:53
This play (109pg) by Dario Fo was written in the unconventional style which Fo himself first made popular, i.e. "narrative theatre" (teatro di narrazione). In such narrative plays, there is only one person, and there is no action or dress or background or anything like that, but just a narrator-actor telling a story, very similar to the popular storytelling which influenced Fo's style so much.
I Will Marry When I Want by Ngugi wa Thiong'o and Ngugi wa Mirii
RevSocialist اش... — Tue, 04/20/2010 - 06:41
This play (117pg) by Kenyan leftist writer Ngugi wa Thiong'o was written after the "flag independence" (Nkrumah's term) from Britain. Ngugi often mentions the Mau Mau, which was the violent, revolutionary anti-imperialist resistance group which forced the british to leave Kenya (during which the british committed countless atrocities, including the execution of Mau Mau leader Dedan Kimathi, and the mass imprisonment of "sympathizers" in concentration camps, as well as routine and wide use of torture).
The Trial of Joan of Arc by Bertolt Brecht
RevSocialist اش... — Tue, 04/13/2010 - 09:03
This short play (41pg) by Brecht is a beautiful play about one of the most well known resistance figures of Europe, Joan of Arc. She is often portrayed as insane, which is not surprising since any one who fought against british [brutish] imperialism was subject to demonization and dehumanization. In reality, Joan of Arc was an intelligent, brave, strong peasant girl, who began fighting against british imperialism and occupation when she was only sixteen. In the play you can see her intellect, and the court dialogue is kept very close or the same as what she said.
The Pope and the Witch by Dario Fo
RevSocialist اش... — Sun, 03/28/2010 - 12:52
This play (111pg), "The Pope and the Witch," of leftist Italian playwright Dario Fo, mocks the pope and the vatican as a whole, and is, as with all of Fo's plays, hilarious.
Senora Carrar's Rifles by Bertolt Brecht
RevSocialist اش... — Wed, 02/24/2010 - 20:13
This is a beautiful play (30pg – it takes place during the Spanish Revolution), and it is basically a theatrical presentation of the argument between advocates of non-violence, and advocates of real change, and real struggle (i.e. advocates of armed resistance).
