The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui (Modern Plays)

Arturo Ui is a very significant work by Brecht. It is funny in a very sardonic way--typical Brech--and ends with a very potent warning for the future.

i directed this excellent translation in a production at york university this winter. this stunningly well-crafted piece of work captures all the style, linguistic flourish, and pace of both brecht's original and the gangster films that inspired it.it is rare to find such a SPEAKABLE version of a brecht play in english--the standardized editions are clunky and scholarly, and feel like brecht has been dragged kicking and screaming off of the stage and locked up in cambridge libraries. not so with dr. wise's translation. the priority here has been firmly placed on finally rendering this excellent play actable in english. this text felt like a gift to work with, and the actors were able to really sink their teeth into these words. in staging this play we never needed gimmicks to compensate for the text (as is so often the case with translations)--the entire work of directing was in revealing what the text already had to offer. fast-paced, funny, and completely comprehensible, the text drives the scenes along with breathless energy, a terrifying and hilarious roller-coaster ride along a tyrant's road to victory.in her introduction, dr. wise points out the difficulty of translating a german play set in chicago into its "natural" language--with every scene and every line, a choice must be made between honouring either brecht's verse structures or the recognizable dialect of 30s chicago--and jennifer's instincts in this are excellent. both verse and prose passages have excellent rhythm, and the rhyming sections are cleverly composed and never awkward. the text is at once accessible and grand in the shakespearean style in which brecht intended the play to be performed.i only hope the english-speaking world will see more translations of brecht from dr. wise--she liberates his work from stodginess and reveals the brilliance of his composition in her thoughtful version. with more such translations we might finally gain an appreciation for brecht's gift for poetry and sense of humour, as well as his stagecraft.

I like the concept but still think that the story cantered around the rise of Hitler has plenty of punch. Appreciated the adaptation and creativity in the casting of the characters.

This play, written by Brecht in 1941, and first performed in 1958, two years after the playwright's death, continues his anti-Stanislavski theatrical techniques, though possibly less effectively than in his more familiar works. ("Life of Galileo", "Caucasian Chalk Circle", "Mother Courage and her Children") The play was mercifully short-the more I read Brecht and about Brecht, the more I am drawn to Stanislavski- but I had some issues with the editorial commentary by the translator, a Canadian academic. Most importantly, her "translator's note" prefacing the play was written in academese, and mostly discourses on the difficulties she found in undertaking the translation of this play. (These were matters of little interest to me, and, I suspect, to most non-academic readers of this, or any play she might translate.) She did not write anything on Brecht's circumstances while he was writing this play, which I would have found far more interesting than for her to tout her own little job of translation, which she possibly wishes to have recognized as the authoritative version. Secondly, she did not explain why she omitted to include in her translation the "signs" brought forward by Brecht at the end of each scene, and noted as such in her version. Thirdly, she unjustifiably minimizes the effectiveness for a good performance of this play in highlighting the analogies in it between petty gangsterism and outright fascism, between Arturo himself and Hitler. (In so doing, she aborts the audience-receptiveness in current stage productions. Her translation does do some justice to Brecht's own choppy discourse and stark, you-are-there dramatical format, though I wonder how captivating for the audience would be BB's own earliest scenes in the play, where he lays out a rather convoluted web of corruption that gives the context for Ui's actual entrance into the action. Again, the more I read Brecht, the more I like Stanislavski.

I had the pleasure of performing in the premiere of this translation under the direction of Brian Richmond at the University of Victoria where Professor Wise teaches courses in theatre and opera history. In order to understand the scope of Wise's achievement, all one need do is go back to the Manheim translation; the dramaturgical rigour and razor clarity that Professor Wise brings to the text makes other available english versions seem hopelessly creaky and awkward. Wise captures the machine-gun rhythm of Brecht's pastiche Chicago Gangland argot, even managing the rare feat of making Brecht's jokes land for a contemporary audience. Wise's Ui also brings a welcome coherency to the play's narrative, without ever sacrificing the weight of Brecht's Marxist social critique.Arturo Ui doesn't generally spring to mind when one visualizes the Brecht cannon, but with the release of this excellent new translation, Jennifer Wise may have rescued the play from the triage of theatre history.I highly commend this translation to scholars and theatre students, but especially to practitioners, in hopes that Brecht's acid gangster parable on the costs of apathy in the face of demagogy and violence will find continuing life on the stages of the English speaking world.Alistair Newton,Artistic DirectorEcce Homo Theatre[...]

A wonderfully rich and stunning adaptation of Brecht's famous Nazi allegory. Off the page, uses alienation techniques that are great for production. A great text for students of Drama and English. With themes of corruption and power, Ui will always be relevant to modern audiences. Gripping verse and some wonderfully 'epic' speeches.

GREAT CONDITION

Very good play. Funny and written in verse. Famously getting the audience to consider how easily Hitler came to power and how quickly those abusing power reduces the masses to victims of fear. Makes you think! Especially like the last verse of closing poem.

Very relevant to current political developments here and abroad. And still funny.

great would order again