To Stratford, to see The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui by Bertolt Brecht - about which, more later.
A busier drive than we had anticipated, but we still arrived at the Swans Nest Lane Car Park in plenty of time to go for stroll.
The Royal Shakespeare Theatre as seen from 'the other' side of the Avon. A sign of the times - if you zoom in hard enough you can see that the doors from the Riverside Cafe that open onto the terrace are all closed and have notices affixed to them. These doors are usually open, and entry to the Cafe (and therefore the building) is policed by volunteers who perform a perfunctory 'bag check'. Now, all access to the building is steered through the "main" entrances and somewhat more rigorous checking. It would appear that the change occurred after the UK national terrorism threat level was raised to "Severe (highly likely)" on 30th April.
A composite shot of the view from south of the river:
To The Boathouse, and our requested balcony table - about which the Boss appeared to be quite happy:
The view back to the 1823 Grade II listed pedestrian Tramway Bridge crossing the Avon:
A view down the length of the (uncharacteristically empty) building, through the shop and main foyer at the far end:
And so to the play.
Fearing persecution, and already blacklisted, Brecht left Germany in February 1933, shortly after Hitler was appointed as Chancellor, and for the next several years he moved around before finally arriving in Helsinki in 1941, where he wrote "Arturo Ui" in just three weeks while he was waiting for a visa to enter the USA. It was always Brecht's intention that the play should be performed in the USA but, given America's neutrality at that time, that did not happen and the play remained unperformed until its world premiere (in Stuttgart) in 1958 - two years after Brecht died.
The play is a "satirical allegory" (or should that be "allegorical satire"?), which describes the rise of Hitler and the Nazis through the story of Arturo Ui, a fictional 1930s mobster, and his attempts to control the Chicago cauliflower racket (!!) by systematically disposing of the competition…
All the characters and groups in the play have direct counterparts in real life, and every scene is based on a historical event. Helpfully, Brecht's original stage directions - followed in this production - include the use of signs or projections which assist the audience in understanding the parallels between the play and actual events.
So what did I think of it? Utterly brilliant - and genuinely frightening. Mark Gatiss, as Ui, was superb - never lapsing into a direct imitation of Hitler, but also never once allowing us to forget who he was representing. The rest of the cast were uniformly good, and the staging was excellent. Given the background to the story, guns were replaced by vegetables. In the scene representing the "Night of the Long Knives" - the internal Nazi purge in which Hitler had rivals and perceived threats murdered - a number of characters are gunned down by
someone wielding a stick of Brussel Sprouts as a machine gun, with the victims
throwing (and appearing to spit) handfuls of red petals to represent splattering blood - simultaneously blackly humorous and chilling.
Parallels with 2026 geopolitics did not need to be emphasised - it was as if the whole audience was thinking as one. At the end of the final scene, Gatiss and other cast members walked off stage, to return a few moments later, but this time out of character. Now speaking in his normal voice, Gatiss addressed the last lines of the epilogue directly to the audience:
"This is no time for celebrating, for bunting and champagne,
Although this time the world stood up and stopped the bastard,
The bitch that bore him is in heat again".
Pause
"What’s next?
And what are YOU going to do about it?"
and then a first for me - while Gatiss and other members of the cast stood motionless, the audience burst into spontaneous applause several seconds BEFORE the stage lights dimmed and then came back up.
I would say beg, borrow or steal a ticket to see this production, but the rest of its undeservedly short run is sold out; if it makes it to the West End or as a touring production it is a must-see.
Out, and a straightforward run home - marvelling at the contrast between this evening and our last one in Stratford.
