The terrifying thing about watching The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui is that you suddenly understand how terrible things (such as the Holocaust) happened through a chain of seamless and ordinary events. In a perfect allegory, Bertolt Brecht wrote a satire in 1941 that disguised Hitler as a Chicago mobster and put his history in the spotlight for the United States to watch. Now, director Phil Rouse wants to set our eye towards American soil: In his version of the play, our Ui has an exaggerated orange tan and a dubious haircut.
Stating that 2016 has been ‘a strange year with heightened tensions between peoples, governments and religions’, Rouse draws our attention towards a real life character that has stolen international headlines more than once: Donald Trump. ‘Demagogues aren’t rare, but when one is a presidential candidate for a country with the largest military budget in the world, one sits up and pays attention’, reads the Director´s note.
I was amazed at how Rouse managed to craft such an intricate plot with only a bunch of chairs, three tables and 9 actors to play more than 20 roles. The stage Rouse chose to set this story in in black – black walls, black floor and black costumes. The light and the music (an excellent job by Rouse who uses contemporary music to add more double meaning to the plot) is what gives life and sets the tone for this story. An American flag drawn with chalk is drawn waving on the floor – constantly trampled by the characters of the story.
The acting is nothing short of fabulous and the storytelling is fast-paced and gripping. Two hours go by in a rush and the intermission feels like an unwelcomed break from a story that grows more suspenseful with each scene.
Indeed, Brecht’s story sheds light into how smoothly demagogy takes hold of power. In a very satirical tone, The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui starts out with characters whose traits and actions border with the absurd. Nevertheless, the chills start creeping in when that border gets blurred with our everyday news. In a series of corrupt but, then again, ‘normal’ political moves, Ui (a character that everyone deemed childish and harmless) sets up his reign of power: an inevitable outcome when greed is paired up with the false belief that people can control something they do not understand. Suddenly, things that you found funny or impossible start ringing a bell in a very realistic manner. And then, it dawns on you: this is all real. It has happened before, and it is happening again.
The last lines of the play, kept as in the original script written by Brecht in 1941, cannot state it clearer: ‘Do not rejoice in his defeat, you men. For though the world has stood up and stopped the bastard, the bitch that bore him is pregnant again’.
– Lourdes
Lourdes Zamanillo is a Mexican journalist that recently moved to Australia to study a Master’s in Sustainable Tourism. She loves words, travelling, and (above all) feeling surprised.
The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui is showing until 10 September at Theatreworks. Buy tickets now.
