The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui written by Bertholt Brecht directed by Michael Ahmad performed at The New Wimbledon Studio Theatre 6 - 10 June 2006

Advertising Copy

Fresh from their sell-out show, Stags & Hens, Carlton Dramatic Society present Brecht's savage and witty parable of Hitler's rise to power.

A chilling reminder that greed and complacency are all it takes for evil to thrive, The Resistible Rise to Arturo Ui chronicles a small-town gangster's takeover of the local green goods trade.

Comic and tragic, farcical and shocking, Brecht combines parodies of the well known theatrical archetypes, Mark Antony, Richard III and Faust with his anger and incomprehension at his country’s headlong decent into madness – Hitler's Third Reich.

Here's what a reviewer said about one production of the play:

Set amidst the economic turmoil of gangster-controlled Chicago in the 1930s, the play is a direct and thinly veiled attack on German apathy towards the threat of Hitler's rise to power, and a warning to future generations. Two years before Hitler's programmes of extermination, the dangers of his expansionist tendencies and his ruthless political ambition were already apparent to Brecht as he transposes Hitler's manipulation of the German and Austrian governments onto a gangster's attempts, via the running of a protection racket, to take over the cauliflower trade in the American cities of Chicago and nearby Cicero during the Depression. Initially dismissed as an uncouth upstart, the gangster Ui uses a mixture of violence, incendiary speech and mesmerizing rhetoric to further his mafia-like promotion of brotherhood and blood ties. Ui and his group of maniacal followers force their way into power, ruthlessly exterminating dissenters and critics and finally achieving support and recognition from the vegetable traders of Chicago and Cicero."

The play mixes high drama with black comedy, original music and song, and promises to be an epic production.

back to top - back to Productions

Synopsis

From the Director's Notes

Brecht's parable play on Hitler's ascendancy was written during three short weeks in Finland at the height of the war in Europe in March 1941. The author was in exile awaiting permission to enter the United States. Each of the main characters is an allegorical representation of a historical character, so for example Givola the horticulturist represents Paul Joseph Goebbels, Hitler's minister for propaganda (see below). Hitler and his ministers are transformed into bunch of small time gangsters as they charm and threaten (alternatively and in equal measure) their way to political and military power. This transformation is the primary vehicle for Brecht's satire. Looking at the Third Reich as a criminal organization is both shocking and comic. It was also a brave act for Brecht to put a contemporary figure such as Hitler on the stage, especially given that at the time it was by no means certain that the Allies would be victorious; America was still six months from entering the war.

back to top - back to Productions

Theatrical Theories and Methods

From the Director's Notes

Brecht uses the Chicago setting populated by grim underworld characters in several of his plays, partly to create a sense of the exotic and fantastic, and partly to put a comforting distance between audience and characters; for the most part these plays are parables of Brecht's Berlin. They are also clearly redolent of those Hollywood gangster films of which Brecht was a fan, and which were so popular during and after prohibition in America. However, Brecht also considered giving ‘Arturo Ui’ a Roman setting and this belies another of his recurring themes, that of 'epic theatre' as demonstrated by the plays of the Elizabethans. Brecht clearly alludes to Shakespeare in several scenes, most notably in Scene 4 where Goodwill and Gaffles are obvious as Rosencrantz and Guildenstern from Hamlet. Scene 9a. where a woman is murdered is almost directly lifted from Julius Caesar, as are the large ensemble scenes in which Ui demonstrates his skills at rhetorical oration. There is even a ghost scene recalling both ‘Hamlet’ and ‘Macbeth’.

back to top - back to Productions

Music

From the Director's Notes

Brecht's epic style would be unthinkable without the use of music .Indeed several of the scenes of ‘Arturo Ui’ were composed specifically with a musical setting in mind. Music therefore plays an important part in our production. The incidental music is almost exclusively taken from central works of the nineteenth century Austro-German tradition. There is operetta from The Merry Widow (incidentally Hitler's favourite show), ‘Die Fledermaus’; there is Schubert and Beethoven, Strauss, Wagner and Brahms. This, I believe, reinforces the historical parallels within the play without damaging Brecht's primary intent.

back to top - back to Productions

Chronology

From the Director's Notes

SCENE 1

1929 - 1932. Germany is hard hit by the world crisis. At the height of the crisis a number of Prussian Junkers try to obtain government loans, for a long time without success. The big industrialists in the Ruhr dream of expansion.

SCENE 2

By way of winning President Hindenburg's sympathy for their cause, the Junkers make him a present of a Landed estate.

SCENE 3

In the autumn of 1932, Adolf Hitler's party and private army are threatened with bankruptcy and disintegration. To save the situation Hitler tries desperately to have himself appointed Chancellor, but for a long time Hindenburg refuses to see him.

SCENE 4

In January 1933 Hindenburg appoints Hitler Chancellor in return for a promise to prevent the exposure of the Osthilfe (East Aid) scandal, in which Hindenburg himself is implicated.

SCENE 5

After coming to power legally, Hitler surprises his high patrons by extremely violent measures, but keeps his promises.

SCENE 6

The gang leader quickly transforms himself into a statesman. He is believed to have taken lessons in declamation and bearing from one Basil, a provincial actor.

SCENE 7

February 1933, the Reichstag Fire. Hitler accuses his enemies of instigating the fire and gives the signal for the Night of the Long Knives.

SCENE 8

The supreme court in Leipzig condemns an unemployed worker to death for causing the fire. The real incendiaries get off scot-free.

SCENES 9 & 10

The impending death of the aged Hindenburg provokes bitter struggles in the Nazi camp. The Junkers and industrialists demand Röhm's removal. The occupation of Austria is planned.

SCENE 11

On the night of the 30th June 1943 Hitter overpowers his friend Röhm at an inn where Röhm thinks that Hitler is coming to arrange for a joint strike against Hindenburg and Goring.

SCENE 12

Under compulsion the Austrian chancellor Englebert Dollfuss agrees to stop the attacks on Hitler that have been appearing in the Austrian press.

SCENE 13

Dollfuss is murdered at Hitler's instigation, but Hitler goes on negotiating with Austrian rightist circles.

SCENE 14

On 11 March 1938 Hitler marches into Austria. An election under the Nazi terror results in a 98% vote for Hitler.

back to top - back to Productions

Parallels

From the Director's Notes

DOGSBOROUGH

Paul von Hindenburg (1847 - 1934), a German Field Marshal and statesman. An important figure during World War 1, he also served as President of Germany from 1925 to 1934.

ARTURO UI

Adolf Hitler (1889 - 1945). Chancellor of Germany from 1933 and Fuehrer (Leader) of Germany from 1934 until his death. He was the leader of the National Socialist German Workers Party, better known as the Nazi Party.

GIRI

Hermann Wilhelm Goering (1893 - 1946). A German politician and military leader known for being second in command of the Third Reich, a leading member of the Nazi Party, and commander of the Luftwaffe. He was tried for war crimes and crimes against humanity at the Nuremburg Trials in 1945-1946 and was sentenced to death. He avoided execution by committing suicide in his cell just hours before the sentence was due to be carried out.

ROMA

Ernst Julius Roehm. A German military officer and the commander and co-founder of the Nazi Sturmabteilung, or stormtroopers.

GIVOLA

Dr. Paul Joseph Goebbels (1897 - 1945). Adolf Hitler's propaganda minister in Nazi Germany. Goebbels was known for his zealous and energetic oratory, virulent anti-Semitism, and perfection of the so-called 'Big Lie' technique of mass propaganda. Following Hitler's death he served as Chancellor for one day, approved the murder of his wife and their six children, and committed suicide.

DULLFEET

Engelbert Dollfuss (1892 - 1934). An Austrian statesman serving as chancellor for two years from 1932 until his assassination in 1934.

CAULIFLOWER TRUST

Junkers - the landed aristocracy of Prussia and Eastern Germany

VEGETABLE DEALERS

Petty bourgeoisie

GANGSTERS

Fascists

DOCK AID SCANDAL

Osthilfe (East Aid) scandal

WAREHOUSE FIRE TRIAL

Reichstag Fire trial

CHICAGO

Germany

CICERO

Austria

back to top - back to Productions

Cast

each character is based on a real person or group

back to top - back to Productions

Crew

all the backstage help

back to top - back to Productions

SPECIAL THANKS TO...

GARY SEDGWICK

for sound production

RICHARD FOSKETT

for the use of his van

THE BILL

for the use of their props

W. A. TRUELOVE AND SONS LTD

for providing the coffin

back to top - back to Productions

Photographs

Click for a larger version

a quickr pickr post

back to top - back to Productions

valid XHTML - click to check | valid css - click to check