The Plebeians Rehearse the Uprising (excerpt from a play)
Grass, Günter
East Berlin, June 17, 1953: The workers' uprising is seething in the streets; on stage, the "Boss"—artist and man of the theatre, a figure clearly modeled on Bertold Brecht—is rehearsing his...
...FLAVUS: "Speak, speak...
...VOLUMNIA: They've got accounts to settle...
...Taking plague as a pretext, They often shut him down— My theater will stay open...
...To them we're bigshots...
...to the Boss) Well...
...translated by Ralph Manheim...
...Boss: That's right, disturbing...
...Down there the people's rage is boiling over And here we're stirring up theater dust...
...Boss: You mean the play, Scene One...
...The asphalt softened and the granite cracked...
...VOLUMNIA: I saw wide-gaping mouths and whites of eyes...
...VOLUMNIA: I've never been afraid...
...At the close of this scene, a delegation of the rebelling workers enters to ask the Boss for his support...
...Be yourself...
...East Berlin, June 17, 1953: The workers' uprising is seething in the streets...
...From The Plebeians Rehearse the Uprising, by Gunter Grass...
...Please, comrade...
...Boss: No, let it run...
...Every last word...
...Boss: Would you rather I had gooseflesh...
...Boss: Oh unrehearsed incompetence...
...Boss: I'll teach them the classic way to tie a slip knot...
...Boss: And so am I. Look, here we are in Rome...
...FOR...
...VOLUMNIA: All right...
...The rehearsal begins...
...VOLUMNIA: Your skin has grown as thick as ox's hide...
...VOLUMNIA: The people have risen...
...At worst we'll have some broken window panes...
...Before the day is out the masons will Be here and wall you up with bricks and mortar...
...Spontaneously...
...VOLUMNIA: They're serious...
...Boss: Good...
...Rehearsing...
...Boss: Is this a railroad station...
...The people are rising up like amateurs...
...But since, as you yourself just said, This isn't Shakespeare's London— Poor Shakespeare...
...Boss: You've borrowed that from me...
...VOLUMNIA: You won't believe me...
...She is wearing a spring overcoat) RUFUS: "Before we proceed any further, hear me speak...
...And it began spontaneously, without plan...
...VOLUMNIA...
...Isn't it going as if by plan...
...Boss: Yes, yes, I know...
...To be published this fall...
...Be wily...
...One night I heard you dream quotations in Your sleep...
...Copyright © 1966 by Martin Secker & Warburg Ltd., and Harcourt, Brace & World, Inc...
...Boss: That smacks of Puritans...
...They stormed the stairway...
...The actress who is to play Volumnia enters, passing through the group of Plebeians...
...Saw dust rise up in columns and screams congealed...
...I saw them coming...
...VOLUMNIA: Then I'm disturbing you...
...on stage, the "Boss"—artist and man of the theatre, a figure clearly modeled on Bertold Brecht—is rehearsing his new production of Shakespeare's Coriolanus...
...Boss: If only that were true...
...Tell us all about it...
...and placards waved above their heads, and on them cried in bold hoarse lettering: FOR PROPERTY...
...Blood...
...He hesitates, clings to the stage and the problems of interpreting Coriolanus and Rome's plebeians—he doubts his countrymen's passion and ability and foresees the failure of the revolution...
...VOLUMNIA: What...
...FOR THE NATURAL DISORDER OF THINGS...
...ERWIN: Yes, stop the tape...
...This time I am...
...A baby carriage...
...Boss: Every word's rehearsed...
...VOLUMNIA: But suppose the disturbances increase, Suppose they rut and buck and whelp Till one becomes a thousand...
...A smell to curdle all the milk in the world...
...Boss (to Erwin): She's been at the movies, seeing Eisenstein...
...VOLUMNIA (turns off tape recorder): I do not wish to speak on tape...
...VOLUMNIA: I'm speaking of the uprising, do you hear, the people...
...I saw the skin on knuckles bursting...
...Maggots thought dead woke crawling in the meat...
...You always seem to find the right quotations...
...FOR THE EXPROPRIATION OF THE OTHERS...
...VOLUMNIA: They'll hang us all, you, him and me From the gallery...
...VOLUMNIA: Like a broad river flow the angry masses, Plowing the streets and shrinking tight the squares...
...PODULLA: Want me to stop...
...Suppose we're not in Rome today Or in King James's London, But in Berlin, and half the city— The eastern half, I mean, our people— Suppose all East Berlin should come disturbing, Hissing, demanding, And shut your theater down...
...Get on with your rehearsal...
...Great palaces fell crumbling to their knees, And fury struck with monumental fists...
...When, finally, he joins in, the uprising is already collapsing, smashed by the Russian tanks...
...But mother of our hero Coriolanus, This scene, respected friend, is not What's being rehearsed today...
...Boss: I'll help them count...
Vol. 13 • July 1966 • No. 4
