''Turandot or the Whitewashers' Congress'' is an

epic Epic commonly refers to: * Epic poetry, a long narrative poem celebrating heroic deeds and events significant to a culture or nation * Epic film, a genre of film defined by the spectacular presentation of human drama on a grandiose scale Epic(s) ...

comedy Comedy is a genre of dramatic works intended to be humorous or amusing by inducing laughter, especially in theatre, film, stand-up comedy, television, radio, books, or any other entertainment medium. Origins Comedy originated in ancient Greec ...

by the German

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 ...

. It was written during the summer of 1953 in

Buckow Buckow ( or ; ) is a List of cities and towns in Germany, town in the Märkisch-Oderland district, in Brandenburg, Germany. The Hydrotherapy, water cure resort is the administrative seat of the ''Amt (country subdivision), Amt'' (municipal associa ...

and substantially revised in light of a brief period of rehearsals in

1954 Events January * January 3 – The Italian broadcaster RAI officially begins transmitting. * January 7 – Georgetown–IBM experiment: The first public demonstration of a machine translation system is held in New York, at the head ...

, though it was still incomplete at the time of Brecht's death in 1956 and did not receive its first production until several years later. It premièred on 5 February

1969 1969 ( MCMLXIX) was a common year starting on Wednesday of the Gregorian calendar, the 1969th year of the Common Era (CE) and ''Anno Domini'' (AD) designations, the 969th year of the 2nd millennium, the 69th year of the 20th century, and the ...

at the Zürich Schauspielhaus, in a production directed by

Benno Besson Benno Besson was a Swiss Theatre Director. Benno Besson (born René-Benjamin Besson; 4 November 1922 in Yverdon-les-Bains, Switzerland – 23 February 2006 in Berlin, Germany) was a theatre director A theatre director or stage director is a ...

and Horst Sagert, with music by Yehoshua Lakner. The story is loosely based on Count

Carlo Gozzi __NOTOC__ Carlo, Count Gozzi (; 13 December 1720 – 4 April 1806) was an Italian ( Venetian) playwright and champion of ''Commedia dell'arte''. Early life Gozzi was born and died in Venice; he came from a family of minor Venetian aristocracy, t ...

's ''

commedia dell'arte Commedia dell'arte was an early form of professional theatre, originating from Theatre of Italy, Italian theatre, that was popular throughout Europe between the 16th and 18th centuries. It was formerly called Italian comedy in English and is a ...

'' play ''

Turandot ''Turandot'' ( ; see #Origin and pronunciation of the name, below) is an opera in three acts by Giacomo Puccini to a libretto in Italian by Giuseppe Adami and Renato Simoni. Puccini left the opera unfinished at the time of his death in 1924; it ...

'' (1762), a production of which Brecht saw in

Moscow Moscow is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns in Russia by population, largest city of Russia, standing on the Moskva (river), Moskva River in Central Russia. It has a population estimated at over 13 million residents with ...

in 1932, directed by

Yevgeny Vakhtangov Yevgeny Bagrationovich Vakhtangov (also spelled Evgeny or Eugene; ; 13 February 1883 – 29 May 1922) was a Russian actor and theatre director who founded the Vakhtangov Theatre. He was a friend and mentor of Michael Chekhov.Martin BanhamThe ...

. From 1930 onwards, Brecht began to develop a version of his own, which became part of a wider complex of projects exploring the role of

intellectual An intellectual is a person who engages in critical thinking, research, and Human self-reflection, reflection about the nature of reality, especially the nature of society and proposed solutions for its normative problems. Coming from the wor ...

s (or " Tuis," as he called them) in a

capitalist Capitalism is an economic system based on the private ownership of the means of production and their use for the purpose of obtaining profit. This socioeconomic system has developed historically through several stages and is defined by ...

society. Brecht's

protagonist A protagonist () is the main character of a story. The protagonist makes key decisions that affect the plot, primarily influencing the story and propelling it forward, and is often the character who faces the most significant obstacles. If a ...

is coarse, lacking the whimsical charm of Gozzi's portrayal and the aspiration to nobility in Schiller's adaptation (1801).Thomson (1994, 25). The play consists of 27 subdividing pictures in 10 major scenes. Its plot is about how to explain high cotton prices, although of a vast harvest. The prize for best explanation is Turandot. The big topic is the abuse of intellectual skills. The play had its British première in an amateur production in 1970 and a professional production at the

Oxford Playhouse The Oxford Playhouse is a theatre designed by Edward Maufe and F. G. M. Chancellor. It is situated in Beaumont Street, Oxford, opposite the Ashmolean Museum. History The Playhouse was founded as ''The Red Barn'' at 12 Woodstock Road (Oxford), W ...

in 1971.Jacobs and Ohlsen (1977, 88, 91).

Notes

Sources

* Brecht, Bertolt. 2004. ''Turandot or The Whitewashers' Conference''. Trans. Tom Kuhn. In Kuhn and Constantine (2004, 127-193). * Jacobs, Nicholas and Prudence Ohlsen, eds. 1977. ''Bertolt Brecht in Britain.'' London: IRAT Services Ltd and TQ Publications. . * Kuhn, Tom and David Constantine, eds. 2004. ''Collected Plays: Eight.'' By Bertolt Brecht. Bertolt Brecht: Plays, Poetry, Prose Ser. London: Methuen. . * Müller-Waldeck, Gunnar. 1981. ''Vom "Tui"-Roman zu "Turandot"''. Ed. Brecht-Zentrum der DDR, Berlin: 1981. * Sacks, Glendyr. 1994. "A Brecht Calendar." In Thomson and Sacks (1994, xvii-xxvii). * Thomson, Peter. 1994. "Brecht's Lives". In Thomson and Sacks (1994, 22-39). * Thomson, Peter and Glendyr Sacks, eds. 1994. ''The Cambridge Companion to Brecht''. Cambridge Companions to Literature Ser. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. . * Willett, John. 1967. ''The Theatre of Bertolt Brecht: A Study from Eight Aspects.'' Third rev. ed. London: Methuen, 1977. . {{Turandot 1954 plays 1969 plays Plays by Bertolt Brecht Works based on Turandot (Gozzi)