Cement

"Zement" is a play by the German dramatist Heiner Müller, which was created in 1972 after the novel of the same name by Fjodor Gladkow. It tells a story of men and women, workers and intellectuals, communists and enemies of the revolution and their relationships to each other in the difficult years in the Soviet Union. The locksmith Gleb Tschumalow, returning from the war as regimental commissioner, finds his town transformed into a village, the cement plant into a goat stable, his wife into a man. The communist worker is still an owner as a man, the woman insists on equal rights. Tschumalow succeeds in getting the engineer Kleist, his deadly enemy, to rebuild the cement works; he loses his wife to the revolution that doesn't stop at home and stove. After civil war, intervention and blockade, hunger is everyday life in the Soviet Union. Not everyone who takes the path of revolution understands every step. Concrete socialism begins with the construction of the cement plant. (Source: theatertexte.de)