Drama: Tempers are rising
This term sees OUDS' first venture at the Playhouse since last November, when it brought us a beautifully crafted production of The Libertine. Its new undertaking is Bertolt Brecht's The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui - an ambitious choice of play to say the least. The choice was, though, foisted upon OUDS because at the National Theatre blocked the project late in the day, seeing the OUDS show as a threat to its summer season.
Competition for the single trinity term slot is always strong - and OUDS is faced now with the difficulty of selling a show to a to a student body rendered largely unreceptive by the prospect of Finals and other forms of torture.
The play charts the rise of Arturo Ui from small-time gangster to powerful leader as he gradually works his way into the Vegetable Trade in Chicago. Taking a satirical shot at the rise of Nazi Germany, Brecht recasts Hitler and his associates as Ui and his band of henchmen. Wonderfully funny in places - such as the scene in which Ui is taught how to speak in public by a faded alcoholic actor - our enjoyment of the comic element is tempered by the fact that we are never allowed to forget the implications of the story.
Parallels between Hitler and Milosevic, the Nazis and the Serbs, have become a recurrent theme in the press recently, and the producers have been quick to cash in on this. The flyer carries a statement from Robin Cook, which neatly makes the point. 'NATO,' he says, 'was born in the aftermath of the defeat of fascism and genocide in Europe. NATO will not now allow this century to end with a triumph of fascism and genocide.'
Whether Arturo Ui proves to be as 'timely and provocative' as it claims remains to be seen. But OUDS has certainly taken a brave move by choosing to stage a 'play-with-a-message,' particularly in the current climate. This in itself is worthy of praise.
ry