DATE AND VENUE

30,31.05.1997, 21.30, Ataturk Cultural Center

BERLINER ENSEMBLE

• Written by: Bertolt Brecht
• Directed by: Heiner Müller

The Brecht Classic, “The Resistable Rise of Arturo Ui” which deals with class consciousness is staged, in Heiner Müller’s interpretation, like a Verdi opera. Müller is not all that interested in the cruelty in the play. “We all know what an awful creature Hitler was. To stres this fort he 100th time in the model of Hitler’s rise would have no affect.” Rather, he finds the Mafia’s presence, which has in our day re-emerged, more interesting. He states that the play is extremely pertinent to the present from the point of view of the link between the Mafia and the politics. “The Mafia infiltrates into politics and this has accelerated since the unification ofGermany. Had the play been staged in 1988, it might have been primarily associated with Stalin. Instead today it offers a much wider scope of association.” Brecht’s great historical Nazi-gangster production has evolved into a Grand theatrical event after 54 years, in the interpretation of Heiner Müller, the theatre genius who died two years ago. In the post-Socialist world of our time, the reflections of waves of nationalism and racism are quite obvious in “Arturo Ui”.