THE RESISTIBLE RISE OF ARTURO UI. To 24 August.
London
THE RESISTIBLE RISE OF ARTURO UI
by Bertolt Brecht Adapted by Andy de la Tour, from a translation by Jane Brenton
The Steam Industry at The Bridewell Theatre To 24 August 2002
Tue-Sun 7.30pm Mat Sun 3.30pm
Runs 2hr 15min One interval
TICKETS 020 7936 3456
Review Timothy Ramsden 11 August
Humour and terror well-mixed in a revival which show Brecht's gangster fable can take on new relevance.Ui is a Chicago mobster in Al Capone mode, but his rise is modelled on Hitler's. The point is, he could have been stopped, though Brecht gets mileage out of comic-strip terror showing why he wasn't, rather than how he might have been. After all, it ain't easy to say no when the mob's pointing a gun at your head or dowsing your premises with gasoline.
Andy de la Tour, author of Safe In Our Hands, a farce clashing Thatcherite politics with public health provision, is an ideal adapter. Yet Thatcherism seems quite long ago now. Nazism's very long ago.
At first, Phil Wilmott's production plays down the parallels: the scene-by-scene captions comparing Ui's progress to Hitler's have gone; even the scene where an old actor (a fine, fruity character from Kevin Moore) teaches Arturo public presentation skills, implies more than it states the way Ui's shambling copy of the grand stage manner transforms into Hitler-like gesturing.
So it's a shame, post-interval, to find him with the Fuhrer's moustache and hairstyle: neither surprising enough to shock or, by this stage, really important to the action. Instead, we're more likely to find parallels with the corruption of business and politics – secret gifts, contracts for the donors, and the like.
Peter Polycarpou's Ui makes the point early on: he'll get nowhere without patronage from the top. He's a fine creation, the head jutting inquiringly forward, semi-articulate expression preceded by arm gestures as thoughts struggles for words. His cronies, instinctively reaching for guns, support well, particularly Stewart Alexander's Roma, open-mouthed in a society beyond his comprehension, his long profile set like rock, yet when Arturo's about to bump him off, surprisingly sympathetic in his deep loyalty and trust in his leader.
The production shows respectable society's moral hand-wringing making it ripe for takeover by hoodlumland, and its moral equivocation during that process. De la Tour's adaptation and Wilmott's lively direction ensure the message gets across with magnum force and extreme prejudice up to the closing image of a ranting Ui, backed by the rich, orating at a line of cowed citizens.
A Youth/Dogsborough Junior: Joseph Wicks
Mrs Butcher: Katerina Jugati
Mr Flake: Peter Stenson
Mr Clark: Nick Cawdron
Arturo Ui: Peter Polycarpou
Roma: Stewart Alexander
Giri: James Albrecht
Givola: Martin Hearn
Ragg: David Rosenbauer
Dockdaisy/Mrs Betty Dulfeet: Amy Rockson
Mr Sheet/An Actor: Kevin Moore
Mr Bowl/Greenwool: David Whitney
Mayor Dogsborough: James Horne
Investigator O' Casey/Mr Ignatius Dulfeet: Justin Deaville
The Woman: Amy Ip
Director: Phil Wilmott
Designer: Rosemary Flegg
Lighting: Hansjorg Schmidt
Sound: Martin Fisher
Movement adviser: Gavin Skerritt
Dialect coach: Alison McKinnon
2002-08-13 01:21:10