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Event
The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui by Bertolt Brecht
Bribery. Hatred. Murder. Blackmail. Power. We could stop her. We won't.
Card Table Theatre remounts it's May 2016 production at the Fishtank in Kansas City, followed by a return to the Eagle's Lodge in Lawrence.
Card Table Theatre originally produced the play as a protest to the rise of the Trump candidacy. Since that time, the play has been produced by companies in Boston and New York who recognized the allegory between the rise of the gangster Ui and the Trump presidency. In May, the play was a poignant yet distant warning. However, as it became clear that the now-President-elect had sold America his rhetoric of hate, and that their own frustrations and biases had meshed with his, the comedy took a backseat to the frustrationthe slow, horrifying realization that rationality had been hijacked by emotion, that vulgarity had better ratings than calm and rational thought. The world we are in, and the world we now must endure, is a very different one than it was eight months ago, and those that fear autocracy and foreign policy dictated by angry tweets must now heed the warnings this play presents.
Card Table Theatre's new all-female cast of the 75-year old Brecht play The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui combines comedy, horror, spectacle, and pageantry to chart the rise of a Capone-ish gangster, who is an allegory for Hitler, and uses the tactics of Donald Trump. Written for the American stage, but not performed there until much later, Brecht takes on the argument that America could never produce a Hitler.
Brecht wrote the play The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui 75 years ago in 1941. He traveled to America, presenting it to American audiences as a comedic warning about power. American producers were so shocked that they refused to produce the play. It was instead initially staged in London.
Using gangsters as a model for Nazis, but also a perfect stand in for the shady heads of corporate American businesses, Brecht charts the rise of Arturo Ui (rhymes with phooey!), a braggart and bully who uses words as weapons to batter his opponents into submission, and who relies on telling people what they want to hear as a chance to spread his hatred and rage. Doing this the gangster Ui is able to take over Chicago, and looks from there to the whole worldjust as Trump has his eye on America!
The play is directed by Will Averill, with assistance from Dustin Schaffer and James Weber.
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LocationThe Aquarium above the Fishtank (View)
1717 Wyandotte
Kansas City, MO 64108
United States
Categories
| Dog Friendly: No |
| Non-Smoking: Yes! |
| Wheelchair Accessible: No |
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