Brecht's The Resistable Rise of Arturo Ui

At the suggestion of a friend, I went with him to see Bertold Brecht's play written in 1941, "The Resistable Rise of Arturo Ui," which is about a Chicago mobster's rise to power, and which is also an allegory of Hitler's or any dictator's ruthless rise to power. It was performed with a spare set with few props or stage furniture at the Steep Theatre on a second preview evening; and it's ensemble work with fourteen actors and four or five prominent roles. http://www.steeptheatre.com/current.html

This theatre company features ensemble productions; the other and last play I saw here was Arthur Miller's "Incident at Vichy". The actor who played the chief criminal, Arturo Ui, was convincingly and energetically played with animation and sulkiness. The air of someone who observes no rules and limits was conveyed well, though at times I felt as if slouching and sulkiness was overdone; I imagine a mobster, a strong man would keep up appearances of strength and a stoic front, at least in front of his subordinates. Another actor whose performance and roles were powerful was man who played the publisher and the actor, who teaches Ui how to walk, sit, talk in order to impress people.

A few scenes, especially in the second part of the play after intermission were especially powerful and moving. For instance, the court scene in which justice is bent to favor the criminals; the scene in which the newspaper publisher is pressured to remain silent, and then confronts his wife.

I must admit that not being familiar with the details of Hitler's own rise to power made me miss allusions and parallels that Brecht worked into his allegory. In the play, Brecht has a narrator comment on the turning points in Hitler's rise to power after some scenes; in the play itself, we hear an announcer speak over the intercom. Having been regularly reading about the machinations of the current government in Russia, like poisoning a critic in London with radioactive polonium, hacking into and shutting down the internet of Estonian government institutions, I found the play chilling with examples of the close connection between criminality and government that is becoming more apparent in Russia.

Brecht pokes fun at the mobster's rise to power through gaining influence in the grocery, in particular, cauliflower business. I could not quite follow just how one grocer was convinced and pressured to ally himself with the mob in exchange for money in the play's first part, and the allusions this may have had to Hitler's alliance with business in Weimar Germany. In any event, the play picked up momentum in the second part, and I would recommend seeing it.