''Coriolanus'' is an unfinished German adaptation by the

modernist Modernism was an early 20th-century movement in literature, visual arts, and music that emphasized experimentation, abstraction, and Subjectivity and objectivity (philosophy), subjective experience. Philosophy, politics, architecture, and soc ...

playwright

Bertolt Brecht Eugen Berthold Friedrich Brecht (10 February 1898 – 14 August 1956), known as Bertolt Brecht and Bert Brecht, was a German theatre practitioner, playwright, and poet. Coming of age during the Weimar Republic, he had his first successes as a p ...

of the English 17th-century tragedy of the same name by

William Shakespeare William Shakespeare ( 23 April 1564 – 23 April 1616) was an English playwright, poet and actor. He is widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's nation ...

.Willett (1959, 63). Brecht wrote it sometime between 1951 and 1953. This adaptation reveals the influence of

Mao Zedong Mao Zedong pronounced ; traditionally Romanization of Chinese, romanised as Mao Tse-tung. (26December 18939September 1976) was a Chinese politician, revolutionary, and political theorist who founded the People's Republic of China (PRC) in ...

on Brecht's social thought especially the idea of primary and secondary contradictions which Mao discussed in his treatise '' On Contradiction''. Brecht alluded to this text and discusses his development on the original and his ideas for its staging in an essay entitled "Study of the First Scene of Shakespeare's ''Coriolanus''", which is written in the form of a dialogue with his collaborators at the Berliner Ensemble theatre company. The play was first staged by Heinrich Koch at the

Frankfurt Frankfurt am Main () is the most populous city in the States of Germany, German state of Hesse. Its 773,068 inhabitants as of 2022 make it the List of cities in Germany by population, fifth-most populous city in Germany. Located in the forela ...

Schauspielhaus theatre, where it opened on 22 September 1962. It was later staged by the Berliner Ensemble in September 1964. Ruth Berghaus became famous for her staging of the battle scenes in this production. The play was published in an English translation by

Ralph Manheim Ralph Frederick Manheim (April 4, 1907 – September 26, 1992) was an American translator of German and French literature, as well as occasional works from Dutch, Polish and Hungarian. He was one of the most acclaimed translators of the 20th ...

in volume nine of Brecht's ''Collected Plays''.Manheim and Willett (1972, 57-146).

References

Works cited

* Brecht, Bertolt. 1964. ''Brecht on Theatre: The Development of an Aesthetic''. Ed. and trans. John Willett. British edition. London: Methuen. . USA edition. New York: Hill and Wang. . * Manheim, Ralph and John Willett, eds. 1972. ''Collected Plays: Nine.'' By

. Bertolt Brecht: Plays, Poetry, Prose Ser. New York: Vintage. . * Willett, John. 1959. ''The Theatre of Bertolt Brecht: A Study from Eight Aspects.'' London: Methuen. . Compositions by Paul Dessau Plays by Bertolt Brecht Works based on Coriolanus Plays and musicals based on works by William Shakespeare {{1950s-play-stub