The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui

A Gangster Spectacle

By Bertolt Brecht, Translated By George Tabori

Directed By David M. Jenkins

May 13 – Jun. 5, 2022

Tickets start at $29.50

Preview Performances: May 11 – 12 | Tickets start at: $18

Shimberg Playhouse, Straz Center for the Performing Arts

The performance is approximately one hour and forty minutes with no intermission.

[Jobsite] has mounted a very funny, fast-as-the-wind production … Jenkins clearly has an inspired vision for the material and his miraculous design team [is] perfectly in sync. The staging is simple and fluid, but always striking. – Creative Loafing
The play is a contemporary farce, exaggerating characters as they are staged and wonderfully performed, especially by this set of Jobsite Theater company players, making us think of a whole range of contemporary, and, of course, the original historic inspiration, dictators of the past … Bravo to the versatile and wonderful actors of the Jobsite Theater, experienced and well-known from Shakespeare to the most far-out comedy … It will be interesting to see what comes next. – Susanne Neilsen, Kulturspiegel
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You laugh at him, you fear him, you realize you know him. You certainly can’t resist him

What It’s About

Expect the unexpected at this “gangster spectacle” that New York Magazine said is “a sly, fearsome sideshow, a deceptively humble, hugely exciting piece of work … It’s Richard III meets Jimmy Cagney by way of the vaudeville circuit … both rollicking and frightening.” Brecht’s skewering authoritarianism is given renewed significance in 2022, not just in America but across the globe.

A comedy about the rise of the Third Reich? You betcha. The point isn’t to make fun that directly, but to poke us all over the fact that we allow it to keep happening — even today in countries across the globe, and in states within our “imperfect union.”

Written while in exile in 1941, Brecht’s Arturo Ui is a satirical allegory that recasts Hitler’s rise as a 1930’s Chicago gangster’s takeover of the Windy City’s green-grocery trade. Terror and bloodshed follow — can anyone stop him? The show is presented here in an adaptation featuring eight performers — Brecht’s original featured over 35. Previous lauded NY revivals have featured the likes of Christopher Plummer, Al Pacino, and Raul Esparza.

This production was inspired by Producing Artistic Director David M. Jenkins’ 2019 visit to Brecht’s theatrical home, the Berliner Ensemble, where Arturo Ui is still one of their most popular productions. Jobsite previously produced Brecht’s The Threepenny Opera in 2017.

Authoritarians are the threat to comedy, to music, to thought, to poetry ... What we have is fragile and precious

Media

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Cast & Crew

  • David M. Jenkins – Director
  • Brian Smallheer – Technical Director
  • Vivian E. Rodriguez – Production Stage Manager

Cast

  • Colleen Cherry – O’Casey / Betty Dullfoot / Actor / Fish
  • Giles Davies – Giuseppe “The Florist” Givola / Bowl / Servant / Smith
  • Spencer Meyers – Ernesto Roma / Prosecutor / Minister
  • Andresia Moseley – Clark / Dockdaisy / Woman / Shorty
  • Derrick Phillips – Arturo Ui / Judge
  • Blake Smallen – Young Dogsborough / Ragg / Defense / Inna / Jim Crocket
  • Katrina Stevenson – Emanuele Giri / Butcher
  • Hugh Timoney – Dogsborough / Ignatius Dullfoot / Greenwool / Physician

Crew

  • Jo Averill-Snell – Lighting Designer
  • Teah Banks – Rehearsal Stage Manager
  • Jeremy Douglass – Composer/Sound Designer
  • David M. Jenkins – Video Designer
  • Brian Smallheer – Scenic Designer
  • Katrina Stevenson – Costume Designer

Patron Reviews

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