THE REVOLUTION AT THE BASE
PLAY/BOOK REVIEW
THE MOTHER, BERTOLT BRECHT, GROVE PRESS, 1989
More than one socialist commentator, including Lenin and Trotsky, has noted that a revolution is made at the base of society by a combination of experiences that cause the masses to throw of their former servitude, indifference or fear and just go for it. In the Marxist movement this has been called the molucular process. The action 'below the radar'. For a rather beautiful literary description of this rising tide read the first few chapters of Volume I of Trotsky's History of the Russian Revolution. Needless to say those times are few and far between so that it is important to study the mechanics of those changes even if, as here, they are changes in overwhelmingly agrarian Russia just coming into the capitalist production process in the early 20th century. I believe, as Brecht obviously did when he brought it to the theater in highly industrialized Germany, that those same sentiments would also be expressed in more developed capitalist societies when tensions reached the breaking point.
Brecht has adapted for the stage this story written by the great Russian writer, and sometime revolutionary, Maxim Gorky. The story line in both cases is fairly straight forward. A working class mother not far removed from her rural roots is fearful that her son’s Bolshevik revolutionary activities will bring disaster on him and the family. As the story unfolds and the son’s commitment grows in line with the government’s repressive policies the mother starts, slowly, very slowly, to get the point of his work. Along the way her own ‘politics’ change and by the end she is as committed to the cause as her son. Her banner is now red.
On the Brechtian stage this story is told amid banners and music that add to the dramatic effect. In either format this is a powerful story and good piece of socialist propaganda. I remember an old German Communist Party member once telling me that in his youth he was actually recruited to the Communist Youth League by this play. Apparently the German CP set up literature tables in the lobby of the theater and at intermission and the end would sign up theater patrons after they had experienced the play. WOW! Would that our tasks were so easily accomplished these days.
PLAY/BOOK REVIEW
THE MOTHER, BERTOLT BRECHT, GROVE PRESS, 1989
More than one socialist commentator, including Lenin and Trotsky, has noted that a revolution is made at the base of society by a combination of experiences that cause the masses to throw of their former servitude, indifference or fear and just go for it. In the Marxist movement this has been called the molucular process. The action 'below the radar'. For a rather beautiful literary description of this rising tide read the first few chapters of Volume I of Trotsky's History of the Russian Revolution. Needless to say those times are few and far between so that it is important to study the mechanics of those changes even if, as here, they are changes in overwhelmingly agrarian Russia just coming into the capitalist production process in the early 20th century. I believe, as Brecht obviously did when he brought it to the theater in highly industrialized Germany, that those same sentiments would also be expressed in more developed capitalist societies when tensions reached the breaking point.
Brecht has adapted for the stage this story written by the great Russian writer, and sometime revolutionary, Maxim Gorky. The story line in both cases is fairly straight forward. A working class mother not far removed from her rural roots is fearful that her son’s Bolshevik revolutionary activities will bring disaster on him and the family. As the story unfolds and the son’s commitment grows in line with the government’s repressive policies the mother starts, slowly, very slowly, to get the point of his work. Along the way her own ‘politics’ change and by the end she is as committed to the cause as her son. Her banner is now red.
On the Brechtian stage this story is told amid banners and music that add to the dramatic effect. In either format this is a powerful story and good piece of socialist propaganda. I remember an old German Communist Party member once telling me that in his youth he was actually recruited to the Communist Youth League by this play. Apparently the German CP set up literature tables in the lobby of the theater and at intermission and the end would sign up theater patrons after they had experienced the play. WOW! Would that our tasks were so easily accomplished these days.
