7 Photos
Actors A.D. Newcomer, Robert Oliver, Esmeralda Cabrera, Liam Glueckert, Andy O'Brien during a recent North Fork Community Theater rehearsal of "The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui.” JULIA CAPPIELLO
Actors A.D. Newcomer, Peter J. Harrington, Tom Ciorciari, Andy O'Brien (seated), Dennis Creighton, Christian Lepore during a recent North Fork Community Theater rehearsal of "The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui.” JULIA CAPPIELLO
Actors Esmeralda Cabrera, Bill Gardner, Robert Oliver, John Lovett during a recent North Fork Community Theater rehearsal of "The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui.” JULIA CAPPIELLO
Director Colin Palmer watches actor Tom Ciorciari during a recent North Fork Community Theater rehearsal of "The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui.” JULIA CAPPIELLO
Actors Dennis Creighton, Christian Lepore, A.D. Newcomer, Andy O'Brien, Tom Ciorciari during a recent North Fork Community Theater rehearsal of "The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui.” JULIA CAPPIELLO
A rehearsal of North Fork Community Theater's production of "The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui.” JULIA CAPPIELLO
A rehearsal of North Fork Community Theater's production of "The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui.” JULIA CAPPIELLO
North Fork Community Theatre (NFCT) will present German playwright Bertolt Brecht’s 1941 play “The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui” from March 17 through April 2.
The setting is 1930s Chicago, and mobster Arturo Ui will stop at nothing to control the cauliflower trade. Terror and bloodshed follow. Can anyone stop him? A dizzyingly intelligent political satire on the (ir) resistibleness of political thuggery, “The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui” satirizes the rise of Hitler in Nazi Germany by dressing it up as “the gangster film” audiences thought they knew. In Arturo Ui, the metamorphosis of thug-to-politician through corruption, intimidation and all manner of brutality is thinly masked by a Chicago gangland epic wherein the young Arturo Ui stages a violent takeover of the green-grocer trade. The play premiered in Stuttgart, Germany, in 1958.
“The shows I direct are usually political or historical in nature, and this one is both,” said Colin Palmer, director of the NFCT production. “Rereading the script two years ago made me realize just how timely this play is. Not necessarily because of any one politician or political movement, but because this play has never stopped being relevant. Economic anxiety has never been truly addressed, and even during lean times it can radicalize people to hate.
“Brecht’s approach to theater is best summed up by this quote of his: ‘Art is not a mirror held up to reality, but a hammer with which to shape it,’” continued Palmer. “Fascism has never stopped trying to weasel its way back into the political mainstream and it’s only through extreme introspection that we can see how we can be vigilant against it and stop it before it succeeds.
“Our rehearsals began with two weeks of text work before we ever got the scenes up on their feet,” he added. “We talked about the historical background of Brecht’s work and the Weimar and Nazi governments he lived under in Germany.”
The NFCT cast includes: Jeanne Arnold, Esmeralda Cabrera, Georgia Ciaputa, Tom Ciorciari, Dennis Creighton, Jennifer Eager, Tim Ferris, Bill Gardner, Liam Glueckert, Peter J. Harrington, Christian Lepore, John Lovett, AD Newcomer, Andy O’Brien, Robert Oliver and Alan Stewart.
As an added benefit and to help facilitate discussions of the play’s themes, each performance will begin with a screening of the 2017 Oscar nominated short documentary “A Night at the Garden.” Using only archival footage, the film documents the 1939 rally at Madison Square Garden held by the pro-Nazi group The German-American Bund. This is a documentary that takes, as The New Yorker put it, “an approach to history that doesn’t lull and flatter us.”
Talkbacks with the cast and creative team will be held after each Sunday performance. Performances are Friday through Sunday, March 17 to April 2, with performances at 8 p.m. on Fridays and Saturdays, and 2:30 p.m. on Sundays. Tickets are $30 at nfct.com. North Fork Community Theatre is at 12700 Old Sound Avenue in Mattituck.
Staff Writer on Mar 8, 2023