If satire is allegory with teeth then Brecht’s, Resistable Rise of Arturo Ui, can claim to be a shark. Described by Brecht as a ‘parable’ it charts the rise of Hitler through a satirical tale about the successful attempt by a Chicago mobster to control the cauliflower market.

Mark Gatiss, as Arturo Ui, gives a performance of Dickensian richness that brings to mind the likes of Quilp and Uriah Heep. He never smiles but that there is a hint of a sneer which itself is the expression of a stiletto held out of sight. There is a testimony somewhere by one of Hitler’s inner circle that he was indolent, a characteristic that Gatiss captures well, moving, as he emerges into the light, with sloth-like lassitude, menacing yet magnetic with a burning self-belief. Or again lolling supine or prone like a dormant virus. Some of the best comic moments came in the scene where Arturo is being coached in theatrical techniques by an old tragedian (Christopher Godwin) and we see the emergence of the familiar posturing and goose stepping as if some reptile is sloughing off its camouflaged skin.

One of the aspects of the whole rise of Nazism that is captured well by the whole company, the director, Seán Linnen and designer, Georgia Lowe included, is that movement from petty notoriety to the full-blown uniformed, militaristic movement that ordinary folk dare not confront until it is too late.

With commendable child-like imagination Linnen has the mobsters use vegetables as weapons, with corn on the cob being particularly menacing. Costumes are as colourful and idiosyncratic as the characters themselves. The cast have been well chosen and give us in every case a vivid character who has their counterpart in the historical events leading to Nazi Germany. Again the (elevated) onstage music by Placebo lends a sinister edge to the atmosphere whilst suggesting the seductive joy of the group.

Never has Brecht’s slap-in-the-face style of agitprop seemed more relevant. The grotesques purveyed by Gatiss and the gang are re-emerging in today’s world and as Brecht has it in the final words of his epilogue, ‘The womb he crawled from is still going strong.’  The production is a fitting testament to and timely warning of the post-truth society which is a child of the internet age that has swapped gatekeepers for influencers.

This production revives one’s faith in the power of drama as a vehicle for political comment that is more than mere sniping at whoever happens to be holding the reins of government. It serves as a timely reminder, not only of the mechanics of demagoguery, but of all tyrants and despots – secular and religious.

★★★★★   Graham Wyles   24 April 2026

Photography credit: Marc Brenner