Translated by Jennifer Wise
June 29 — August 12, 2018 at City Garage
The Great Depression in 1930s Chicago. Unemployment. Fear. Graft and corruption at City Hall. What do you need when society starts to fall apart? A strong man who steps in to take control. Arturo Ui, a small time gangster with an insatiable appetite for power, convinces a panicked population that no one has the answers but him. He and his cronies will provide the protection you’re looking for: even if you don’t know you’re looking for it. Brecht’s 1941 satirical masterpiece classic about Hitler’s rise to power in 1930s Germany demonstrates, with a savage blend of comedy and pastiche, how demagogues take power and how easily—and willingly—democracies become autocracies.
“City Garage.. is the ideal local company to revive this infrequently done, disturbingly timely play.”
‘The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui’ at City Garage
The essentials: Bertolt Brecht’s 1941 satire, which he wrote while in exile from Germany and waiting for an American visa, has been described as “the American gangster movie meets Richard III.” The play’s account of a buffoonish, small-time Chicago racketeer who takes over the city’s cauliflower market is a thinly veiled and often savage parody of Hitler’s rise to power.
Why this? As Charles Isherwood wrote in Variety about a 2002 New York production, “ ‘Arturo Ui’ paints a blunt picture of a smug society easily corrupted and ultimately overtaken by a low-level hoodlum and his gang of thugs.” Does this sound at all familiar? Is it too soon? Or maybe too late? City Garage, known for daring, highly stylized sociopolitical theater, is the ideal local company to revive this infrequently done, disturbingly timely play.
— Margaret Grey, The Los Angeles Times
“Is there a through line from Capone’s Chicago and Hitler’s Germany to the current Washington interregnum? Director Frédérique Michel and producer Charles Duncombe make a good case in their City Garage production of Bertolt Brecht’s THE RESISTIBLE RISE OF ARTURO UI, featuring a very strong performance by Andrew Loviska in the title role.”
— Barlo Perry, ParisLA
“There are plays that are both timeless and timely and The Resistible Rise Of Arturo Ui is the best possible choice The City Garage could have made of the lot of them….City Garage makes good use of Wise’s rapid-fire and engaging translation with a cast that embodies all things 1930-40s Gangster with strong physical choices and a bevy of accents that are impressive and delightful.”
— The Theater Times
“Arturo Ui shows us precisely how yes It Can Happen Here. Worse (in some eyes) how it already has. More than once…
City Garage’s production captures many of the tricks and skillful theaticalities Brecht worked into his plays.” — David MacDowel Blue, Night Tinted Glasses.
Schedule:
| Runs: | Fridays, Saturdays 8:00pm; Sundays 3:00pm |
| Bergamot Summer Day on July 21st. Special 4:00pm show. Pay what you can at the door or regular prices at Brown Paper Tickets if you want to reserve ahead of time. Food trucks, music, and art events all day. | |
| Closes: | August 12, 2018 |
| Admission: | General Admission: $25; Students/Seniors $20 |
| Group Rate: | (Groups 10 and over) $15. |
For more information: Contact Charles Duncombe, Producing Director Charles@citygarage.org
