It was with a sense of anticipation and apprehension as I entered the Roslyn Packer Theatre. I had a vivid memory of John Bell’s 1971 incendiary performance as Ui as part of the then Old Tote Theatre Company’s production. I was concerned that Hugo Weaving’s performance might straddle the high bar Bell had set.

However before I come to that, a brief synopsis of the play. The play charts the rise of a criminal megalomaniacal demagogue Ui and his gang of thugs who take over the grocery industry as well as that of a neighbouring town, as a precursor to take over the world. Bertolt Brecht, who left Germany in 1933, wrote the play  in 1941 in Finland, not as a play for the Germans but for an American audience. Brecht set the play in 1030’s Chicago where the Italian mafia ‘ruled’ unchecked. So Hitler’s inner circle had Italian names which director Kip Williams has retained.

Brecht died in 1956 in East Germany never to see his play which was first staged in Stuttgart in 1958. The play came to Broadway in 1961 with Christopher Plummer in the lead role.  The production lasted just eight performances. In 1968 the play performed better running for ten performances.

In 1971 Sydney loved it as Bell performed two seasons of the play during the year.

To my relief and joy Kip Williams has come up with a brilliant production..

Bertolt Brecht, when he wrote the play, gave specific instructions as to how the play was to be staged. Brecht wanted it to be episodical with scene titles to be projected onto a theatre’s curtain. Brecht wrote this play with this episodic spine so that one could not invest emotionally in a character.

Brecht developed a kind of performance style called epic theatre which sought to alienate (his words) the audience from the actors. Brecht believed that nothing should get in the way/obstruct his play’s message. Accordingly actors would change on stage so that the audience never forgot that they were actors in a play. Brecht’s characters were meant to be archetypes, yes to entertain but the audience was required to think and ponder on what was said.

That Kip Williams followed these instructions but used modern technology made the production all the more powerful. The television cameras and the projection of the actors on a high resolution screen, created a disorientating effect, the Brechtian alienation barrier.

This camera filming of the actors could also be a commentary on the way everyone is -can be- filmed on a smart phone at any time. In this way reality shows have become a television phenomenon, making nobodies into somebodies like the Kardashians, the Bachelors and Batchelorettes and of-course Arturo Ui.

This is the clever conceit of the production and  its execution is masterful with the cameras dancing – following them backstage and  when their backs are to the audience we still see their projected faces and even a bubbly Busby Berkeley angle filmed downwards from the ceiling.

The full title of this play is followed by the words – a parable play. It was a warning intended in 1941 as a wake up call to America in relation to Hitler’s ascendancy.

Kip Williams removes the Chicago setting, resists Trump comparisons, does not emphasise the Hitler comparisons, and thereby makes the parable universal. There are good comic touches in the production, necessary both to keep the audience entertained and to  facilitate the message.

In particular the scene during which  Hugo Weaving is taught by an out of work director, played by Mitchell Butel, as to how to protect himself  with voice, posture and gesture, is very funny and sinister at the same time.

Which brings me to Hugo Weaving – he is magnificent. He prowls the stage, cajoling, menacing, exploiting human weakness with rat like cunning, not hesitating to perform murder, blackmail or brutality on his way to world domination. The television cameras seem to emphasise Weaving’s very large teeth as if he is devouring people like a marauding wolf. His towering performance elicits the comedy and  horror of this historical farce.

Peter Carroll plays the venial politician Dogsborough’s whose greed gives Ui to rise from anonymity to the beginning of his ascent to power. Carroll’s insincere laughter, his lack of hubris as to his ability to resist Ui, potently portrays a type of politician we are all too familiar with. Carroll also does a very funny turn as a ditzy stenographer.

Mitchell Butel as Clark displays the arrogance and self entitlement  of the ruling classes and also demonstrated his versatility as Ui’s voice and charisma coach.

Continuing the multipart performances Anita Hegh  projects a steely cold strength as Clark’s wife and the vulnerability of a widow, Mrs Dullfleet, whose husband Ui murdered. Nevertheless Mrs Clark must also support Ui out of self preservation. Mrs Clark vividly elicits the Richard III element in this performance. Brecht loved Shakespeare and included a nightmare sequence like Macbeth and Hamlet  and indeed has Ui read from Julius Caesar in the coaching scene.

Because Brecht’s belief that actors are ciphers men can play women and women can play men – hence the roles played by  Ursula Yovich and Peter Carroll.

Kip Williams has selected a strong ensemble of actors who in their own way play effective foils including Colin Moody as Roma- a ferocious threat to Ui, Charles Wu, Monica Sayers, Tony Cogin, Ivan Donato, and Brent Hill.

Kip Williams took a gamble removing the intermission from a two hour and fifteen minutes production. The wager was a huge success. I did not notice the time flying by and that’s the greatest tribute one can give to a production.

The production features a new translation by Tom Wright which retains the macabre  humour but also has special connections with Australian audiences. Ui, in his final monologue, quotes John Howard’s words on immigration and Johnny Farnham’s ‘You’re The Voice’ portraying Ui’s beer hall origins. Ironically Brecht’s text, in iambic pentameters, has never been  altered. I am pleased Williams and Wright retained the chilling epilogue phrase ‘The bitch that bore Ui is back and in heat again’.

Robert Cousins effective minimalistic  set allowed the actors to roam about the stage uninhibitedly and of-course leaving room for the tv cameras which followed them.

Sound designer Stefan Gregory score is suitably ominous. Gregory uses The Ride of Valkyries by Wagner, Hitler’s favourite composer.

Lighting designer Nick Schlieper in conjunction with cinematographer Justine Kerrigan enhance the mood of menace and brutality of this splendid production.  

The work by Costume designer  Marg Horwell is particularly impressive when she dresses Hugo Weaving in a singlet when he hits rock bottom, when he is at rock bottom, in flashy shark suits on his way up to a sober, elegant tailored suit when supreme authority is his.

This production of epic theatre is epic in all its ameliorative meanings and Hugo Weavings bravura, sizzling Ui will rank as a new standard in theatrical performances just as John Bell did in 1971.

THE RESISTIBLE RISE OF ARTURO UI is playing the Roslyn Packer Theatre, Walsh Bay until Saturday 28th April, 2018 at the Roslyn Packer Theatre.