A SAMUEL FRENCH, LTD. TITLE

Measures Taken, The (tr. Bentley)

Full-Length Play, Drama  /  1w, 13m

Eric Bentley, Bertolt Brecht

Four revolutionaries come to a Chinese city to incite revolution. They find it necessary to kill a dedicated young communist who has pity and concern for the poor.

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Measures Taken, The (tr. Bentley)

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  • Cast Size
    Cast Size
    1w, 13m
  • SubGenre
    Subgenre
    Period
  • Audience
    Target Audience
    Adult, Senior

Details

Summary

Four Communist agitators have killed a comrade while on a mission to China. A 'Control Chorus' instructs them to describe how this came about, so that a verdict may be pronounced. Their reasons for the deed are re-enacted: the victim, though a true Communist, had committed several serious errors in Communist practice and therefore agreed to his own death. They are praised by the Control Chorus for their successful work.

Cast Attributes

The Four Agitators, who play the parts of:

The Young Comrade
The Head of the Party House
The Overseer
Two Coolies
Two Textile Factory Workers
The Policeman
The Merchant 

The Control Chorus 

  • Time Period 1930s
  • Setting

    A concert platform

Licensing & Materials

  • Minimum Fee: £70 per performance plus VAT when applicable.

Authors

Eric Bentley

Eric Bentley
Eric Bentley was born in England in 1916, became an American citizen in 1948, in 1998 was inducted into the (American) Theatre Hall of Fame, and in 2011 won a gold medal from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. Scholar, critic, teacher, performer, translator and, final ...
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Bertolt Brecht

Bertolt Brecht
Bertolt Brecht (1898-1956), playwright, poet and director, was born in Augsburg, Germany in February 1898. He established himself as a playwright during the 1920s and early 1930s with plays such as Baal, Man is Man, The Threepenny Opera and The Mother. In 1933, as Hitler came ...
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