THE RESISTIBLE RISE OF ARTURO UI. To 20 December.
Glasgow
THE RESISTIBLE RISE OF ARTURO UI
by Bertolt Brecht translated by Ralph Manheim
Citizens Theatre To 20 December 2003
Tue-Sat 7.30pm Mat 13 December 3pm
Runs 2hr 10min One interval
TICKETS: 0141 429 0022
www.citz.co.uk
Review: Timothy Ramsden 6 December
Fast-moving political grotesque revived with energy and rough humour.Arturo. Who he? Al Capone, for one; the gangster provided a good parallel, with his annexation of Chicago's near neighbour Cicero, where the mob controlled the city, its law and institutions. A parallel for Brecht's main target, Adolf Hitler. The terror men, whether after mob money or Nazi power, operated much the same way. And their rise is resistible not just because someone ought to have done something earlier, but because it was corruption that got them to the top.
That, and a curious mix of appealing to and putting the frighteners on, the little man. Big business answers back. It's the person with one shop who sees it torched when he objects; the individual on his own gets shot when he steps out of line.
It's a long time since Arturo passed this way Michael Blakemore's revelatory production, with Leonard Rossiter as the shuffling crook, came out of Glasgow a third of a century ago. That was a main stage matter, and there's some loss here. Less sense of a whole community terrified.
Yet, with its inventive élan, Philip Breen's small-scale revival gains in a focus on the individual. Stephen Ventura's shabby, shambling Ui may not command the masses but he's a grotesque ferret, frighteningly plausible in his coaxing threats, horrifically repugnant in appearance and manner. There have been hints of the Hitler gesturing before the scene with an old ham actor, where the distortions of Irvingesque stage grandeur into cheap political theatricality is muted.
Billy Mack's weasel-smile Givola is the eternal henchman, while Vivien Parry's depressed Mrs Dullfleet, realising the misery she's brought on her Anschlussed place by inviting Arturo's boys in, provides a telling presence in the final moral line-up.
Excellent work too from Stewart Porter. His Roma mixes confident thug with the sidekick loyal at death's-door to the boss who betrays him; he's notable too, in contrast, as a complacently smiling tradesman blindly believing he's dealing with fair-minded people until raising his voice brings his business down about him.
Leaving this darkly horrific comedy, the light of day in the Citizens' foyer reveals Brecht's Epilogue written on a placard: the danger remains ever-present. Life could be about to reflect theatre.
Arturo Ui/Judge: Stephen Ventura
Clark/Ragg/Prosecutor/Inna: William Gregory
Giri/Sheet/Young Dogsborough/Actor: Andrew Langtree
Givola/Mulberry/Dogsborough/Voice: Billy Mack
Flake/Dockdaisy/O'Casey/Defence/Betty Dullfleet: Vivien Parry
Roma/Butcher: Stewart Porter
Director: Philip Breen
Designer: Mark Bailey
Lighting: Jon Prendergast
2003-12-10 01:45:47