The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui

by Bertolt Brecht

A summary by Helen Chavez

Introduction

Brecht wrote The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui in exile in Finland in 1941, appalled by the extreme policies and omnipotent evil of Adolf Hitler and the Third Reich. The play is an analogy of Hitler's rise to power and Germany's acquiescence in the face of Fascism. Already reeling from the deprivation following the First World War and suffering from the crippling financial and social pressure that followed, the German people were ready to hear the platitudes and fanatically right-wing policies of their Chancellor.

The 'Parallels'

Arturo Ui - Adolf Hitler
Giri - Göring
Ernesto Roma - Röhm
Givola - Goebbels
Cauliflower Trust - Junkers (East Prussian landowners)
Vegetable dealers - petty bourgeoisie
Gangsters - Fascists
Dock Aid Scandal - 'Osthilfe' [East Aid] Scandal
Warehouse-fire Trial - Reichstag Fire Trial
Chicago - Germany
Cicero - Austria

Plot Summary

It is Chicago in the 1930s, business is bad (apart from those who indulge in business of a more nefarious nature), and the members of The Cauliflower Trust are bemoaning their losses. Nobody, it seems, has any money, let alone any spare cash to buy cauliflower. As the Great Depression grips the Windy City, vegetables are the least of peoples' problems.

Into this equation steps Arturo Ui, a local gangster seeking power, and here he sees an opportunity to hold sway over the city. But Ui is a paranoid sociopath, alternately swayed by the advice of his Lieutenant, Ernesto Roma, and by his own fanatical self-aggrandising nature. As he begins to take a firm grip - through reasonable words backed up by threats and violence - Ui begins to see the possibilities of furthering his hold not only on Chicago, but on towns and cities he decides are ripe for the picking, such as the little town of Cicero.

Through political manoeuvring he murders, bombs and machine-guns his way to power - but then his psychosis begins to take hold, the whisperings of his henchmen leading him to think of betrayal in his own ranks, and bloodshed ensues.

Bertolt Brecht (1898-1956)

Perhaps Germany's greatest dramatist, Bertolt Eugen Friedrich Brecht was born in Augsberg in 1898.

After studying medicine and philosophy at Munich and Berlin Universities, he won the Kleist drama prize in 1922 for his first two Expressionist plays Trommeln in der Nacht and Baal.

Intrigued by the effects created by combining music and drama, he often collaborated with great composers such as Kurt Weill, and as such established his reputation as a leading dramatist. But as a confirmed Marxist, Brecht also wanted his plays to be seen as experimental social commentaries, not as a 'suspension of believe', often seen as the traditional role of theatre. To this end, he expected his audience to see the actors and the stage as exactly that - the audience was to be a detached observer to the performance, and was in no way to become involved by identifying with the characters.

On Hitler's rise to power in 1933, Brecht fled Germany and took refuge in Denmark, Sweden and Finland, and it was during this Scandinavian exile that Brecht wrote The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui, just before his final exile to the United States.

Settling in Hollywood, Brecht expressed his hatred of Nazi Germany in a series of short, episodic plays and poems. But in 1946 his tenure in America was brought to an abrupt end when he was called before a Senate sub-committee on un-American activities, during which he vehemently denied membership of the Communist Party.

In 1948 he accepted an offer from the East German government of a theatre, and it was then he founded the Berliner Ensemble, producing many of his own later plays, and also touring Western Europe. But he soon found himself out of step with the East German authorities, his opera Lukullus being withdrawn by order on the first night.

Despite being the recipient of the Stalin Peace Prize in 1954, his pessimistic view of morality was out of tune with Marxist material optimism, but Brecht still carried on producing his own plays with the Ensemble until his death in 1956.

His work was influenced by many diverse and eclectic sources - Martin Luther's biblical language, Elizabethan drama, the works of Rimbaud and Kipling, and Japanese Nô theatre. Lyrical, bawdy, terse, or truly sublime, Brecht's work is still remarkably fresh and stimulating, stretching and challenging the audience, encouraging theatre-goers to assess their own viewpoints and question their own ideals.

Bibliography

Chambers Biographical Dictionary, J. O. Thorne & T. C. Collocott, ed (Edinburgh: Chambers, 1988)

Bertolt Brecht, The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui: Bertolt Brecht Collected Plays, Tr. Ralph Manheim, Ed. John Willett & Ralph Manheim (London: Eyre Methuen, 1981) Vol. 6, Part 2.