The History of Why.
The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui was written as the alarm bell echoed throughout Europe. It was written past the point of no return. Brecht had already escaped Europe and what he feared was going to happen had come to fruition. Much like the rest of his repertoire, Arturo Ui is overtly political and begs its audience to look at the world around them. To look at how positions of power take and take from the common people. To attend a Brecht show meant to resign the comfortability of simply sitting through a show. To attend a Brecht show means that it’s message settles deep. To finally, maybe, wake them up to the other side of reality.
Bertolt Brecht escaped Germany a day after the Reichstag fire. Escaping the disintegrating threads of the Weimar Republic and the seeds of something else entirely. The day Reichstag burned, the blame was placed on communists. The next day a State of Emergency was declared. The Nazis passed legislation authorizing the government to rule for four years without any participation from the parliament.
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A few months before fleeing, on January 30th, President Paul von Hindenburg had named the “housepainter” or Adolf Hitler the Chancellor in an ill-fated decision. Barely a week later, on February 4th Hitler granted himself emergency powers to act against anyone who opposed him in the press or at political events.
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Bertolt and later his family fled to Denmark where he began writing Arturo Ui, finishing it in an astounding three weeks in the midst of chaos. The play was completed in Helsinki in March of 1941. Brecht had always intended for it to be produced in the United States, but there was reservation due to the possible implications that fascism could one day settle in the United States.
Upon Brecht’s return to Berlin, he started the Berliner Ensemble and started producing his own work; Brecht died in 1956 before Arturo Ui was eventually produced in 1958.
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