About the work
Bertolt Brecht wrote this one-act drama in 1937 while in Danish exile, prompted by his collaborator Slatan Dudow and written together with Margarete Steffin. It took its model from John Millington Synge's 'Riders to the Sea' and was originally titled 'Generals over Bilbao'. It premiered on 16 October 1937 at the Salle Adyar in Paris, with Helene Weigel in the title role; the German premiere did not follow until 1946 in Berlin.
Plot
Fisherman's widow Teresa Carrar wants to keep herself and her two sons out of the Spanish Civil War and hides her late husband's rifles, even though her brother Pedro wants to hand them to the government forces. When her elder son Juan is shot while fishing by a Francoist warship, Carrar abruptly changes course: she fetches the rifles and heads to the front with Pedro and her younger son José.
Cultural significance
Brecht wrote the play in response to the Málaga massacre, arguing that neutrality between perpetrators and victims is impossible. It was among his most frequently performed works during his lifetime and still appears regularly on German-language stages.