Bertolt Brecht’s seminal work, The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui, can surely be described as one of the very best creative works of literary fiction. As one delves into scrutinizing the work in context, the intricacies and subtleties of dramatic expression as penned by Brecht and as portrayed by the performance directed by Professor Barry Freeman make one comprehend the sheer aesthetic excellence and affective quintessence that constitute this particular dramatic work in context. The most intriguing aspect of the play by Brecht is the parallel with the historical character of Adolf Hitler. The play works as a primary message to the audience regarding the historical occurrence of the rise of the Nazi party and its supreme leader, Adolf Hitler, pointing to the fact that their emergence was not just an aberration but a resultant of the intertwined power dynamics of the world society.
This play engages in chronicling a parody of the rise of Hitler and successfully retains all the subversive dark humor as well as the savage-like potency. This seminal play by Brecht goes on to present a spectacular satire of Hitler as it portrays him as a quite ludicrous Chicago hoodlum who engages in seizing the entire control of the greengrocery protection racket of the city. While toward the beginning of the play the audience is left to laugh at the comical situations portrayed in the narrative, the transformation of the male protagonist of this play starts in a hilarious scene where Arturo Ui gets training in diction and deportment from an old Shakespearean ham. While the protagonist learns classical theatre’s grand mannerisms, he imbibes the very trademark gesticulations of the Nazis. During the Depression-era in the city of Chicago, the cauliflower trust becomes very scared of being the victim of recession. As such, the trust embraces the protection of Arturo Ui, the rising mob leader, along with his entire gang. Thus, Ui goes on to take charge of the docks by the process of blackmailing Dogsborough, an aged politician. Although Dogsborough fancies his own self of being an honorable person and hates Ui for being an uncouth gang-leader, he gives in to Ui’s demands.
Ui engages in extending his rule in Chicago by murderous acts and intimidation. He even rids himself of Ernesto Roma, his former ally, and even targets to gain power in Cicero, the neighboring city. It needs to be noted that the entire narrative is portrayed in the signature style of Bertolt Brecht. This play finds an inception with a prologue where all the characters get introduced and then dismissed. All the characters as well as the occurrences of this play’s narrative are conspicuous analogues of the real-life selves to the very point of being pun. As such, one can understand that Dogsborough stands for President Hindenburg, Ignatius Dullfeet stands for Engelbert Dollfuss, and likewise. Thus, the parallels with one of the darkest phases in the history of human civilization are quite conspicuous in the course of the narrative by Brecht.
It has to be understood in the context of the discussion that Adolf Hitler and the playwright, Bertolt Brecht, were on opposing positions with regard to their political ideology. While Brecht was a hardcore communist, Hitler and the Nazi party were stern nationalists. Now, one has to reckon that fascism engages in conveying meanings via the politics of spectacle. As such, the Nazis paid extreme care to their salutations, etiquettes and looks. In stark contrast to the propagandist view of Nazi party and Adolf Hitler, one can take the portrayal of Ui in the contextual play by Brecht. The way the playwright engages in portrayed the Nazis as the gangsters of Chicago undercuts the very show of mythological markers by the Nazis. It has to be remembered that during the 1920s, Hitler had this image of wearing a fedora and a trench coat along with this bull-whip. This image can be seen to be quite analogous with the image of a gangster.
The play, The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui, literally savages the relationship of the Nazi party with the ruling class of Germany. It needs to be remembered that the elite people of the nation engaged in self-serving opportunism, as they showed their cowardice. They turned a blind eye to the matters that would rather be best left unknown. As such, the scene in the course of the narrative that shows how Ui falters and goes on to browbeat the character of Dogsborough to accept his protection comes across to be the very center of this play. This scene can be described to be quite terrifying, funny as well as pathetic. The play endeavors to and succeeds in portraying the rise of Hitler and how his rise could have been thwarted. The character of Ui stands as the dramatic representative of Hitler and his actions mirror the acts of Nazis making the audience retrospect on the gaining of power by the Nazis.
Brecht expresses through this play in context that nothing in this world is inevitable. He goes on to portray how the rise of Hitler was orchestrated by specific historical circumstances along with the help of the elite people of the country of Germany who were scared of the societal unrest and the economic crisis after the First World War. Brecht engages in portraying the support of the ruling-class for Adolf Hitler through the narrative of this play in context. Apart from this, the trial scenes in the play point to the fact that the Nazis were to be held responsible for the fire in Reichstag. The production by Professor Freeman does very well in quintessentially portraying all the nuances of the play. The key scenes of this play leave a lasting impression on the minds of the audience. The director is very apt in the satire and the commentary on the historical events. The props and the set used in the course of this play stand out. Moreover, it needs to be noted that this play has to do a lot with the physical acting of the characters.
The actors portray their best abilities while staging the act. This scene where the male protagonist’s frivolous nature gets transformed into royal poses, Ui eventually feels embarrassed due to his common mannerisms. In his utmost eagerness to come across as a quasi-divine leader of the gang, Ui takes his lessons from this washed-up actor. This scene comes cross to be comic in the beginning and ends with the furious recitation by the male protagonist when he quotes from the play, Julius Caesar. The person playing the character of the male protagonist portrays the Führer facsimile as well as the sleaziness of the gangster with utmost perfection. One can surely comment that the playwright has done a commendable job exposing fascism via humor in this play. It would be correct to say that the play, The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui, provided the audience with a wonderful aesthetic experience. The play works as a strong anti-fascist ammunition in its powerful literary and dramatic form just as the playwright envisaged it to be.
It can be understood that the playwright, Bertolt Brecht, found that there is a tendency to see the Nazis and Adolf Hitler as a sort of singular, isolated, exceptional and monstrous nefarious force that is resigned to a point of past era in the timeline of human civilization that would not occur again. However, in Brecht’s eyes, such a perspective is totally erroneous. As per his view, the rise of Adolf Hitler was surely not a unique event in the history of mankind, but was rather one that would take place again quite easily if the society drops the “guard too quickly.” This essence is reflected in the course of the play in context where one finds the interpretation of one of the major phases in the history of mankind and world politics by the stalwart playwright.
It would be correct to end by saying that the play, The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui, is surely one of the finest works of drama, and the performance directed by Professor Freeman does justice to the play by Brecht. The production imbibes the signature style of the playwright and finally stirs the mind of the audience to the very core. The audience is left to wonder if the rise of Hitler could be impeded, or if such a phase can return to haunt the human civilization. The fact that the ideologies of Hitler and Brecht are at loggerheads with one another is very conspicuous all through the play. The playwright mocks, satirizes and thus criticizes Adolf Hitler and the Nazi party. Standing in contrast to the cinematic work by Leni Riefenstahl and being in congruence with the central essence and theme of Charles Chaplin’s famous work, The Great Dictator, Brecht exposes the dictatorial rule of the Nazis and juxtaposes his own ideological stand in the play through the insightful interpretation of history and the message of warning to human society.
Works Cited
Brecht, Bertolt. The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui. Trans. George Tabori. Ed. Alistair
Beaton. London: Bloomsbury Publishing, 2013. Print.
The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui. By Bertolt Brecht. Dir. Prof. Barry Freeman. UTSC
Production. Performance.
