Described by Brecht as 'a gangster play that would recall certain events familiar to us all', "The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui" is a witty and savage satire of the rise of Hitler - recast by Brecht into a small-time Chicago gangster's takeover of the city's greengrocery trade. Using a wide range of parody and pastiche - from Al Capone to Shakespeare's Richard III and Goethe's Faust - Brecht's compelling parable continues to have relevance wherever totalitarianism appears today.Written during the Second World War in 1941, the play was one of the Berliner Ensemble's most outstanding box-office successes in 1959, and has continued to attract a succession of major actors, including Leonard Rossiter, Christopher Plummer, Antony Sher and Al Pacino.This version, originally translated by George Tabori, has been revised by leading Scottish playwright Alistair Beaton.

Bertolt Brecht
Translated by George Tabori Drama

Characters: 30 male, 5 female

Brecht's shudderingly accurate parallel between Hitler and his henchmen on the one hand and the old crime lords of Chicago on the other is a vigorous eye opener that was produced on Broadway with Christopher Plummer. The Cauliflower Trust in Chicago is in need of help and turns to a racketeer by the name of Arturo Ui to begin a "protection" campaign. His henchmen look astonishingly like Goebbels and Goring. Their activities include "accidental" fires and a St. Valentine's Day massacre. "A wild and grotesque sort of clown show, with everything seen through a distorting mirror...An ideal vehicle for a director who knows how to shoot the work in his staging." -The New York Post