The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui

Production history

The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui was intended by Brecht to be first performed in the United States, but he was unable to get a production mounted. Brecht brought the play to the attention of director Erwin Piscator in New York, suggesting Oskar Homolka to play Ui. Piscator and Brecht's frequent musical collaborator, Hanns Eisler, got H. R. Hay to translate the work, which was completed by September 1941, and submitted to Louis Shaffer, the director of Labor Stage, who turned it down as "not advisable to produce", presumably because the United States was still, at the time, a neutral country.[1]

The play lingered in the drawer until 1953, after Brecht had founded the Berliner Ensemble, and had produced there his major works. He showed the play around to a larger circle of people than had seen it previously, and this eventually led to the Berliner Ensemble's production – except that Brecht insisted that scenes from his Fear and Misery of the Third Reich, a series of realistic short pieces about life in Nazi Germany that was written around 1935 – needed to be produced first. His fear was that the German audience was still too close to their previous psychic connection to Hitler.[1]

When Brecht died in 1956, the Berliner Ensemble still had not produced Fear and Misery in the Third Reich – which at various times was also called 99% and The Private Life of the Master Race – but Brecht had prepared it for publication, which came out in 1957. That same year, scenes from the work were staged by five young directors of the Ensemble. One of them, Peter Palitzsch, directed the world premiere of The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui in Stuttgart, West Germany, in 1958.[1][7] The Ensemble itself first produced the play four months later, with Palitzsch and Manfred Wekwerth co-directing, and Ekkehard Schall as Arturo Ui. This production, "staged in fairground style, with ruthless verve and brassy vulgarity"[1] was presented also in Berlin, London and at the Paris International Theatre Festival.[1] A later production by the Berliner Ensemble, directed by Heiner Müller has run in repertory since June 1995, with Martin Wuttke in the title role.

The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui was presented twice on Broadway. The first production was in 1963, with Christopher Plummer in the lead role and Michael Constantine, Elisha Cook, Lionel Stander, Sandy Baron, Oliver Clark and James Coco in the cast. It was directed by Tony Richardson and ran for five previews and eight performances.[8] The second Broadway production of the play took place in 1968–69 by the Guthrie Theater Company. It starred Robin Gammell as Ui, and was directed by Edward Payson Call. It ran for ten performances.[9]

The play has been presented three times Off-Broadway. In 1991 it was produced by the Classic Stage Company, with John Turturro as Arturo Ui, directed by Carey Perloff.[10]

In 2002, it played at the National Actors Theatre, with Ui played by Al Pacino, co-starring Steve Buscemi, Billy Crudup, Charles Durning, Paul Giamatti, John Goodman, Chazz Palminteri, Jacqueline McKenzie, Sterling K. Brown and Tony Randall (who also produced) the cast. It was directed by Simon McBurney.[11] The Classic Stage Company tackled it again in 2018, directed by John Doyle with Raúl Esparza in the title role and Eddie Cooper and Elizabeth A. Davis in the supporting cast.[12] In 1986, the play was produced in Canada at the Stratford Festival, running for 46 performances with Maurice Godin in the lead role.[13]

Most recently in 2017, Bruce Norris' adapted version of the play was performed at the Donmar Warehouse in London, with Lenny Henry starring as Arturo Ui, and directed by Simon Evans.[14]

The role of Ui has been played by such other notable actors as Peter Falk, Griff Rhys Jones, Leonard Rossiter, Antony Sher, Nicol Williamson, Henry Goodman[15] Hugo Weaving,[16] and Jean Vilar.[1] Simon Callow discussed his interpretation of the role in his autobiography, Being an Actor, while Plummer explains why he felt he failed in the role on Broadway in his autobiography, In Spite of Me.

A production by the Sydney Old Tote Theatre Company was filmed for Australian television in 1972 with John Bell in the title role[17] and Helen Morse as Dockdaisy.[18]


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