“The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui,” by Bertolt Brecht, 1941. Adapted, 2016. Frank Theater Reading
Frank Theater’s planned production of this play at one of
their movable sites didn’t happen, so instead they staged a free reading at the
St. Thomas College Library in St. Paul, MN, USA. It is an adaptation of
Brecht’s original play about the rise of fascism in Germany, now fitted to
respond to the rise of Trump in 2016.
I’m not sure the adaptation worked, but then I do not have a copy of
each play before me. Nor did anyone
else. Certainly lines were inserted into the text that reference quotes by
Trump, or allude to him and the MAGA movement.
2013, Duchess Theater
Arturo Ui (Hitler) in this satire is a Depression-era
gangster in Chicago in the 1930s who liquidates anyone who opposes him in his
quest to take over the “Cauliflower Trust” (The Junkers and petit-bourgeoisie) in
the city. The Trust is really all of the
town’s vegetable dealers, i.e. society as a whole. He’s sort of an Al Capone on the
surface. In the process he corrupts a
powerful Chicago city council person (really von Hindenberg), every vegetable dealer,
liquidates a newspaper man (The Chancellor of Austria); and blames others for
his crew’s arson and shootings – all part of his protection racket. He manages to get a huge loan from the city to
build a dock and the Trust steals all the money, based on a real scandal in
Germany about aid to eastern farmers that was stolen by Junker landowners. The gang (Nazi Party) and two of its prominent
leaders (Goebbels and Goring) resort to continual lies, fabrications and plots.
Then the complicated story expands to Cicero (Austrian Anschluss), a formerly
notorious mob hangout near Chicago. Ui
pretends to be diplomatic at all times, yet finds himself killing his closest confidant
(Ernest Rohm, leader of the Brownshirts) as he’s fearful of anyone opposing
him.
The humor, satire and sarcasm are engaging, the unctuous
blather obvious, the occasional rhyming dialog great, the frequent crude
swearing somewhat shocking even to me. The
machine-gun killings are repetitive but I guess that is the point. The key link between Trump and Ui is that
both pledge to protect the ‘good people’ from evil – criminals, immigrants,
Commies, labor people, Jews, Muslims, demons, what have you. This when the real problems are being caused
by Ui and Trump’s allies, who do things like light vegetable warehouses on fire
(Reichstag fire). Blaming others for
your own crimes to hide the real perps is the method.
It’s the projection of fear onto ‘the Other’ - Jews, communists, gays,
Gypsies, Mexicans, Blacks, Haitians, Chinese, trans people. It is a purely emotional tactic playing on
identity and obscuring real power.
So the question becomes political in this version – is
Trump a fascist like Hitler? Some Democratic
leaders now seem to think so. Certainly he has fascist allies on the Christian
Dominionist Right, in the various militias, in the bellicose podcast milieu, in
MAGA. The 3%ers, the Proud Boys, the
Oath Keepers are all mobilized, armed and threatening anyone who gets in their
way. Yet fascism’s full control of state power requires the adherence of the
majority of the ruling class and the military, neither of which he will have or
need if he wins. Trump can still wreak
havoc even without full state power. At
least that is their plan.
Trump’s actually a demagogic authoritarian who will use
threats, presidential power, legislative power and police power to carry out
the aims of his right-wing capitalist backers, as shown in Project 2025. Orban’s Hungary is the ‘democratic’ ethno-state
that they aspire to ape. He won’t need to kill every enemy, or jail them, as
did Hitler or Ui. He will use the U.S. judiciary,
journalists, police, educational institutions, church and military powers instead. His base in the South is already moving in
that direction. Whether he can achieve
that nationally is another matter and whether he is elected is another matter.
The resistance of the advanced elements of the working class will make all
the difference to defeat any moves towards more authoritarianism. This is a group which is not mentioned in the
text, as the ‘resistance’ inferred by the title – ‘Resistible’ - does not have a parallel in the play except for an
investigator in Chicago. Evidently the audience is the resistance, which in
this case was full of mostly older liberals, sad to say.
Frank Theater will possibly put on the full play in the
spring or summer.
Prior blogspot reviews on this subject, use blog search
box, upper left, to investigate our 17 year archive, using these terms: “Fetal,” “Things of Dry Hours,” “Love and
Information,” “The Cradle Will Rock,” “The Convert,” “Revolt. Revolt She Said.
Revolt Again,” The Good Person of Setzuan,” “The Visit,” (All plays by Frank Theater); or
the words ‘fascism,’ ‘Trump’ or ‘Hitler.’
The Kultur Kommissar / November 5, 2024
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