Roslyn Packer Theatre, Sydney
March 27, 2018

Bertolt Brecht wrote The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui in 1941 as a parable of Hitler’s rise to power, setting the action in 1930s Depression-era Chicago – and drawing heavily on films that depicted that time – with Ui and his band of mobsters standing in for the Führer and Nazi figures such as Göring and Goebbels. Kip Williams’ new production for Sydney Theatre Company, however, starring Hugo Weaving in the title role, pulls the action into the 21st century in a thrillingly wrought retelling that’s both timeless and remarkably contemporary.

Williams has used cameras to reveal and create (or conceal) truth on stage in the past, such as in his 2015 production of Suddenly Last Summer, but in this production his deft and complex use of technology, using hand-held cameras to evoke public announcements and press conferences, as well as to hone in on fine details and emotional tells, gives Brecht’s allegory a cinematic grandeur and an action-packed visual aesthetic.

Hugo Weaving in Sydney Theatre Company’s The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui. Photo © Daniel Boud

Tom Wright’s new translation is brilliant,...