The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui

An annotated student edition of one of Brecht's most famous plays and a classic of modern literature/theatre. 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 ofthe city's greengrocery trade. Using a wide range of parody andpastiche -- from Al Capone to Shakespeare's Richard III and Goethe's Faust-- Brecht's compelling parable continues to have relevance wherever totalitarianism appears today. Writtenduring the Second World War in 1941, the play was one of the BerlinerEnsemble's most outstanding box-office successes in 1959, and hascontinued to attract a succession of major actors, including LeonardRossiter, Christopher Plummer, Antony Sher and Al Pacino. "One of the greatest poets and dramatists of our century" Observer