Señora Carrar's Rifles

"Señora Carrar's Rifles" ("Die Gewehre der Frau Carrar") is a one-act play by the twentieth-century German dramatist Bertolt Brecht. This play is more traditionally constructed than much of Brecht's epic theater. Brecht wrote the play in 1937 and it received its first theatrical production in the same year, opening in Paris on the 16th October. This production was directed by Slatan Dudow and Helene Weigel played Señora Carrar. The play is a modern version of the Irish dramatist Synge's play "Riders to the Sea" (1904).Willett (1959, 45-46).]

The play's action is switched from Ireland to Spain during the height of the Civil War. Teresa Carrar, the mother, wants to protect her children but ends up fighting on the side of the oppressed. The play is written entirely in the Aristotelian mode and uses dramatic illusion, prose dialogue and a non-epic structure.

"Senora Carrar's Rifles" became the most frequently performed play in East Germany becauseFact|date=August 2008 it violated Brecht's anti-empathetic theories and conformed to the "approved" model of dramatic form.

Works cited

* Willett, John. 1967. "The Theatre of Bertolt Brecht: A Study from Eight Aspects." Third ed. London: Methuen. ISBN 0413 34360 X.
*Calabro, Tony. "Bertolt Brecht and the Art of Dissemblance". 1990, Longwood Academic.

References