''The Days of the Commune'' is a play by the twentieth-century

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany (of or related to) ** Germania (historical use) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law **Ge ...

dramatist A playwright or dramatist is a person who writes plays. Etymology The word "play" is from Middle English pleye, from Old English plæġ, pleġa, plæġa ("play, exercise; sport, game; drama, applause"). The word "wright" is an archaic English ...

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

. It dramatises the rise and fall of the

Paris Commune The Paris Commune (french: Commune de Paris, ) was a revolutionary government that seized power in Paris, the capital of France, from 18 March to 28 May 1871. During the Franco-Prussian War of 1870–71, the French National Guard had defended ...

in 1871. The play is an adaptation of the 1937 play ''The Defeat'' by the Norwegian poet and dramatist

Nordahl Grieg Johan Nordahl Brun Grieg (1 November 1902 – 2 December 1943) was a Norwegian poet, novelist, dramatist, journalist and political activist. He was a popular author and a controversial public figure. He served in World War II as a war corresponde ...

. Brecht's collaborator

Margarete Steffin Margarete Emilie Charlotte Steffin (21 March 1908 – 4 June 1941) was a German actress and writer, one of Bertold Brecht's closest collaborators, as well as a prolific translator from Russian and Scandinavian languages. Biography Born to a pr ...

translated the play into German in 1938 and Brecht began working on his adaptation in 1947. The process was driven by another Brecht collaborator,

Ruth Berlau Ruth Berlau (24 August 1906, Charlottenlund – 15 January 1974, East Berlin) was a Danish actress, director, photographer and writer, known for her collaboration with Bertolt Brecht and for founding the Bertolt-Brecht-Archiv in Berlin. Born ...

, who had introduced Brecht to Grieg in 1931. The work forgoes the individual dramatic

hero A hero (feminine: heroine) is a real person or a main fictional character who, in the face of danger, combats adversity through feats of ingenuity, courage, or Physical strength, strength. Like other formerly gender-specific terms (like ...

and focuses on the

itself, a collective composite of people. The scenes shift between the different lives of people, going from the street corners of

Montmartre Montmartre ( , ) is a large hill in Paris's northern 18th arrondissement. It is high and gives its name to the surrounding district, part of the Right Bank. The historic district established by the City of Paris in 1995 is bordered by Rue Ca ...

to the Paris City Council. On this council, the enemies of the Commune, Thiers and Bismarck, engineer its collapse. The play details an event that is considered to be the original

proletarian revolution A proletarian revolution or proletariat revolution is a social revolution in which the working class attempts to overthrow the bourgeoisie and change the previous political system. Proletarian revolutions are generally advocated by socialists ...

and a major event in the

socialist revolution Revolutionary socialism is a political philosophy, doctrine, and tradition within socialism that stresses the idea that a social revolution is necessary to bring about structural changes in society. More specifically, it is the view that revoluti ...

Karl Marx Karl Heinrich Marx (; 5 May 1818 – 14 March 1883) was a German philosopher, economist, historian, sociologist, political theorist, journalist, critic of political economy, and socialist revolutionary. His best-known titles are the 1848 ...

viewed the Commune - which remained the only attempt at a decidedly

socialist Socialism is a left-wing economic philosophy and movement encompassing a range of economic systems characterized by the dominance of social ownership of the means of production as opposed to private ownership. As a term, it describes the e ...

government during his lifetime - as the prelude of a classless

communist society In Marxist thought, a communist society or the communist system is the type of society and economic system postulated to emerge from technological advances in the productive forces, representing the ultimate goal of the political ideology of ...

. Brecht's play develops a

Leninist Leninism is a political ideology developed by Russian Marxist revolutionary Vladimir Lenin that proposes the establishment of the dictatorship of the proletariat led by a revolutionary vanguard party as the political prelude to the establishme ...

interpretation of the Commune . It is one of the main sources for the first act of

Luigi Nono Luigi Nono (; 29 January 1924 – 8 May 1990) was an Italian avant-garde composer of classical music. Biography Early years Nono, born in Venice, was a member of a wealthy artistic family; his grandfather was a notable painter. Nono beg ...

's opera ''

Al gran sole carico d'amore ''Al gran sole carico d'amore'' (''In the Bright Sunshine Heavy with Love'') is an opera (designated as an 'azione scenica') with music by Luigi Nono, based mainly on plays by Bertolt Brecht, but also incorporating texts of Fidel Castro, Che G ...

''. It was performed on the 100th anniversary of the Paris Commune, in March, 1971, in two performances at Harvard University and at Yale University under the direction of Leonard Lehrman. A version directed by

Zoe Beloff Zoe Beloff (born 1958) is an artist residing in New York who works primarily in installation, film, and drawing. Biography Zoe Beloff was raised in Edinburgh, Scotland. In 1980 she moved to New York, and a few years later she received an MFA in ...

, was performed on the streets of New York over the course of several months in 2012, and a film version can be seen on its website.

Notes

Sources

* Calabro, Tony, ''Bertolt Brecht and the Art of Dissemblance'', Longwood Academic, 1990 Plays by Bertolt Brecht Works about the Paris Commune {{1940s-play-stub