Coriolanus is an unfinished German adaptation by the modernist playwright Bertolt Brecht of the English 17th-century tragedy of the same name by William Shakespeare.
[1] This adaptation reveals the influence of Mao Zedong on Brecht's social thought especially the idea of primary and secondary contradictions which Mao discussed in his treatise On Contradiction.
[2] Brecht alluded to this text and discusses his development on the original and his ideas for its staging in an essay entitled "Study of the First Scene of Shakespeare's Coriolanus", which is written in the form of a dialogue with his collaborators at the Berliner Ensemble theatre company.
[3] The play was first staged by Heinrich Koch at the Frankfurt Schauspielhaus theatre, where it opened on 22 September 1962.
[1] Ruth Berghaus became famous for her staging of the battle scenes in this production.