The Resistible Rise of Arturo UI at Columbia College, School of Fine and Performing Arts

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2. The Resistible Rise of Arturo UI

Written by Bertolt Brecht.

Authors

• Bertolt Brecht
• David Lang

"Arturo Ui" is Adolf Hitler and, to Bertolt Brecht, that is really the point. His satirical drama, "The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui" is a thinly veiled chronicle of the rise of Hitler and his inner-circle cohorts (Rohm, Goring and Goebbels) to power in Nazi Germany. Brecht left Germany in 1938 and this play, which was written in three weeks in 1941, was intended for the American rather than the German stage. The plot centers on "Ui," a Chicago mobster of the 1930s, and his henchmen who are set to take over the green grocery (Cauliflower Trust) trade in the Windy City. "Dogsborough" is the highly moral/ethical politician they corrupt in order to get in with the Cauliflower Trust. Brecht was anxious that people not miss the parallels in this play to events in Germany and even went so far as to have signs carried across the stage to make sure the audience would not miss a scene's references to real world events.