The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui

Described by Brecht as 'a gangster play that would recall certain events familiar to us all', Arturo Ui is a witty and savage satire of the rise of Hitler - recast by Brecht into a small-time Chicago gangster's takeover of the city's greengrocery trade. Using a wide range of parody and pastiche - from Al Capone to Shakespeare's Richard III and Goethe's Faust - Brecht's compelling parable continues to have relevance wherever totalitarianism appears today.

Written during the Second World War in 1941, the play was one of the Berliner Ensemble's most outstanding box-office successes in 1959, and has continued to attract a succession of major actors, including Leonard Rossiter, Christopher Plummer, Antony Sher and Al Pacino.

Presented in Methuen Drama's Modern Classics series, this is the standard critical edition of the play featuring extensive editorial notes and an introduction.

A major dramatist of the twentieth century, Bertolt Brecht (1898-1956) was the founder of one of the most influential theatre companies, the Berliner Ensemble, and the creator of some of the landmark plays of the twentieth century: The Threepenny Opera, Life of Galileo, Mother Courage and The Caucasian Chalk Circle.

'In this savage and witty parable written in exile in 1941, Brecht recasts the rise of Hitler as a small-time Chicago gangster''s takeover of the city''s greengrocery trade. This prizewinning translation by Ralph Manheim skilfully captures the wide range of parody and pastiche in the original - from Richard III to Al Capone, from Mark Antony to Faust - without diminishing the horror of the real-life Nazi prototypes.'

This item is eligible for free returns within 30 days of delivery. See our returns policy for further details.