Plays about the russian revolution

[Rudi]

Hey comrades

Would anybody be able to recommend to me some plays about the russian revolution? Plays which are, naturally, sympathetic to the revolution :)

Also has anyone read a good biography on Marat?

[Sasha]

"die mutter (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Mother_%28play%29)" from brecht is the only one i know about the russian revolution but Tankred Dorst (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tankred_Dorst)'s "Toller" is about the german one.

[Blake's Baby]

There's a series of plays (called 'The Bolsheviks') about the treaty of Brest-Litovsk, the assassination attempt on Lenin and ... I dunno, the death of Lenin I think by Mikhail Shatrov. Never seen them performed but I read them some years ago, they seemed quite interesting. I found them a bit hard to judge as political works, and quite 'clunky' as literature though (partly because they're meant to be staged not read, partly because translations are always a bit weird) - I think they would work better in their true medium.

[Rakhmetov]

Robert Bolt who wrote the screenplays for Lawrence of Arabia, Doctor Zhivago, A Man For all Seasons and A Dry White Season wrote a play called The State of Revolution.

State of Revolution (http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/wiki/State_of_Revolution) (1977) - An in-depth political depiction of the Russian Revolution of 1917 (http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/wiki/Russian_Revolution_of_1917), focusing on Lenin (http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/wiki/Lenin) as "a great man possessed by a terrible idea", and the struggles of Leon Trotsky (http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/wiki/Leon_Trotsky) and Joseph Stalin (http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/wiki/Joseph_Stalin) to gain power under him. It is told from the point-of-view of Lunacharsky, Lenin's Minister of Education. The original cast included Michael Bryant (http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/wiki/Michael_Bryant_(actor)) as Lenin, Terence Rigby (http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/wiki/Terence_Rigby) as Stalin, Brian Blessed (http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/wiki/Brian_Blessed) as Maxim Gorky (http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/wiki/Maxim_Gorky), and Michael Kitchen (http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/wiki/Michael_Kitchen) as Trotsky. Though meticulously researched, the play received mixed reviews and had a short run before being shelved. Bolt himself felt that he hadn't gotten the play quite right. ---from wiki article

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Bolt

http://www.amazon.com/State-Revolution-Play-Robert-Bolt/dp/B000NG47A0/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1307718795&sr=1-1

As for Marat ... Check this one out:

http://www.amazon.com/Jean-Paul-Marat-Scientist-Revolutionary/dp/1573926078/ref=sr_1_fkmr0_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1307719081&sr=1-2-fkmr0#_