Polish without Politics

The Resistable Rise of Arturo UI

By Bertolt Brecht Directed by Jean Betts Circa Theatre

The Resistable Rise of Arturo Ui is

one of Bertolt Brecht's lesser known plays and, when it was written in 1941, one of his most direct examples of political theatre. The story concerns Arturo Ui, a small-time Chicago gangster who starts up a protection racket in the cauliflower business and soon has the city at his feet.

On the way up he succeeds in corrupting the city's old and revered councillor, forces the Cauliflower Board into a position where they must cooperate with him, exterminates the opposition, copes with rivalry in his gang by staying one double-cross ahead, and all the while fervently maintains his honourable intentions.

Although it is the story of any gangster, Brecht had one in particular in mind: Hitler. The identification of thuggery with fascism was specifically meant to demonstrate the nature of the latter. To achieve this the text advocates a very striking technique: after each sequence a placard is to be displayed relating events in Hitler's Germany which closely parallel the events of the sequence.

For example, in one sequence, the greengrocers make their qualms about Ui's proposals known. Their spokesperson's warehouse is burned down and a reign of terror begins. The placard which follows announces the 1933 Reichstag Fire and the Night of the Long Knives.

This is not to say the play is just a political tract. In the main it is a ribaldrous comedy, with scope for plenty of fast paced action, music and showmanship. This is the aspect Jean Bett's production at Circa has capitalised on to a tee.

Indeed, Betts has left out the references to Hitler altogether. Her program note which quotes critic Martin Esslin gives us the clue to why she has done this. Says Esslin: "Brecht's world is as unlike England or America as it could possibly be . . . Everything in this mythical empire which extends from Alaska to the South Seas is bigger than life size; savage, adventurous and free."

This is certainly true. Brecht's gangsters are a mixture of every cardboard image one could possibly conceive, and deliberately so. In addition, his political analysis is simplified to say the least. This does not weaken the import of the play, but gives it a powerfully dramatic nature. Whatever the simplification and fancification, nothing of the inherent truths of the story are lost.

Betts, I imagine, had decided that specific references would, in contemporary circumstances, merely tie the action down and deny it its free dramatic scope. Her production is not just Brecht minus the specifics, but perhaps the best example of her style seen here to date.

This means that she has coaxed from each actor a fine example of their personal idiosyncrasies, each providing an intriguing and often captivating display of style which does not infringe on or eclipse that of another. Such ensemble playing where each actor is so different from the rest is a rare occurence.

It means that the set, by Tony Lane, the lighting by Keith White house, and the music by Paul Baeyertz all measure up to the vital part they have to play. The atmosphere is indeed "mythical" and yet retains an interior cohesion which is immediately recognizable.

It means a combination of energy and strategic balance, a mixture of pathos and the ludicrous with purpose and strength. It is a black world she has painted, yet one in one in which the light is that of imagination. This has been her aim and in this she has succeeded.

Some of the work is remarkable. In a courtroom sequence she has replaced Brecht's punctuating Funeral Waltz by Chopin, with a drag stripper. The songs, some Brecht's, some new, are mostly given a pseudo-contemporary treatment.

It is unfortunate that Betts found no way to reconstitute the seriousness of Brecht's political intentions. In building her own Chicago (notably, she calls it Shikago) she has preferred to leave the explicitness to one side. As a result the importance of the theme is perhaps too underrated in favour of the play's dramatic potential. The one need not restrict the other, but nor does either necessarily carry the other with it.

At the end it is said to us of Ui, "But don't rejoice too soon at your escape/ The womb he crawled from is still going strong." This comes as something of a shock, and it shouldn't. Neither Brecht nor Betts explain clearly enough why Arturo Ui's rise is resistable. This is a mistake of Brechts which the director has not been able to totally circumvent. Nevertheless the production is well worth a a visit. It is one of Jean Betts' best works, which places it among the very best of Wellington theatre for some considerable time.

Simon Wilson