A Ascensão de Arturo Ui, de Bertolt Brecht

In the epilogue of “The Rise of Arturo Ui”, Brecht writes the following:

“Therefore, we learn how to see and not to gape.
To act instead of talking all day long.
The world was almost won by such an ape!
The nations put him where his kind belong.
But don’t rejoice too soon at your escape,
The womb he crawled from is still going strong.”

The recent history of the world has revealed incredible similarities with a dark past. The strategies are old, the instruments have changed for contemporary times. The authoritarian projects that have emerged little by little around the world, they aren’t any less dangerous than the mafia. They found a mediatic place willing to listen to them and to normalize their hate speeches.

Let’s look inside of our borders and at the most refined demagoguery with parliamentary seat. Arturo Ui is an easily recognizable character in our political landscape. His gang of mafiosi are characters very present on social networks, in private hate messages, in mailboxes, comments from the media, so often replicated in coffee table conversations.

Meanwhile, the reconfiguration of the political system is already underway and the extreme right presents itself as the third political force in the national panorama. The hate speeches proliferate and the reactionaries come out of their shell fighting for a place in the sun.

 

Audience: + 12 

 

Staging and dramaturgy: Bruno Martins

Staging assistance: Cláudia Berkeley

Text: Bertolt Brecht

Translation: José Maria Vieira Mendes

Scenography and costumes: Catarina Barros

Lighting Design: Valter Alves

Sound design and original music: Pedro Souza

Drums: Martinho Cardoso

Piano: Eduardo Peixoto de Almeida

Sound operation: Ricardo Campos

Performers: Diana Sá, Eduardo Breda, Gonçalo Fonseca, Luísa Guerra, Pedro

Couto, Valdemar Santos.

Production: Raquel Passos

Photography: Paulo Pimenta; TUNA_TNSJ

Co-production: Teatro da Didascália, Teatro Nacional São João, Casa das Artes

from Vila Nova de Famalicão

Acknowledgments: MATILHA STUDIO/ João César Nunes