What you need to know

Brecht’s “The Stopping Ascent of Arturo Ui”

The theater quick check by Larissa Schütz

(Bild: Krone KREATIV/Tschepp, stock.adobe.com)

Whether you're on the trolleybus on the way to the performance, having a cigarette before the premiere or waiting in the toilet queue, with this quick check you'll be perfectly prepared for the evening in just 2 minutes. The "Krone" has the most important information about "The Stopping Ascent of Arturo Ui" by Bertolt Brecht at the Salzburg State Theater.

What is it about?
Today, Saturday, the Salzburger Landestheater is showing Brecht's satirical play, which dresses up Hitler's political rise in the guise of a Chicago gangster drama and uses it as a metaphor for the seizure of political power.

Plot: 
Chicago is in the midst of a vegetable crisis. Greens, especially cauliflower, are no longer selling. The small-time gangster Arturo Ui senses his chance to make a profit from the misery. He uses the city's redevelopment plans as an opportunity to ally himself with the influential businessman Dogsborough by offering him bribes and helping him to avoid an investigation. With Dogsborough's support, Ui begins to eliminate his rivals through violence and intimidation, plotting to take complete control of the vegetable market by staging a fire that discredits one of his rivals. In the end, all rivals seem to be eliminated and Ui gives a speech to the citizens, whom he has completely manipulated and intimidated. The play ends with a chorus warning that such demagogic upstarts may reappear again and again if society is not vigilant.

Show-off knowledge for the interval: 
As well as directly parodying Hitler's rise, Brecht also draws parallels between Ui and Shakespeare's Richard III. The play was published in English in 1941 and only premiered in German after Brecht's death.