The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui
|
|
The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui (original German title: Der aufhaltsame Aufstieg des Arturo Ui) is a play by the German dramatist Bertolt Brecht, originally written in 1941. It chronicles the rise of Arturo Ui, a Chicago mobster, and his attempts to control the cauliflower racket by ruthlessly disposing of the opposition.
It was written by Brecht in 1941 in Helsinki while Brecht awaited his US visa. The play was not produced on stage until as late as 1958, and not until 1961 in English.
The play is consciously highly satirical of Adolf Hitler in Nazi Germany, whose rise Brecht considered parallel to that of Ui. The play has been criticized for emphasizing the gangster aspect of the Nazis and ignoring their strong ideological and racist appeal.
Ui, Brecht's comic gangster personification of Hitler, and Hitler's evil, has been played by a number of notable actors, including Al Pacino, Leonard Rossiter, Anthony Sher and Nick Murphy.de:Der aufhaltsame Aufstieg des Arturo Ui