It chronicles the rise of Arturo Ui, a fictional 1930s Chicago mobster, and his attempts to control the cauliflower racket by ruthlessly disposing of the opposition.
It opens with a prologue in the form of a direct address to the audience by an otherwise unidentified "Actor", who outlines all the major characters and explains the basis of the upcoming plot.
[4] Finally, Hitler's practiced prowess at public speaking is referenced when Ui receives lessons from an actor in walking, sitting and orating, which includes his reciting Mark Antony's famous speech from Julius Caesar.
Piscator and Brecht's frequent musical collaborator, Hanns Eisler, got H. R. Hay to translate the work, which was completed by September 1941, and submitted to Louis Shaffer, the director of Labor Stage, who turned it down as "not advisable to produce", presumably because the United States was still, at the time, a neutral country.
He showed the play around to a larger circle of people than had seen it previously, and this eventually led to the Berliner Ensemble's production – except that Brecht insisted that scenes from his Fear and Misery of the Third Reich, a series of realistic short pieces about life in Nazi Germany that was written around 1935 – needed to be produced first.
This production, "staged in fairground style, with ruthless verve and brassy vulgarity"[1] was presented also in Berlin, London and at the Paris International Theatre Festival.
[11] In 2002, it played at the National Actors Theatre, with Ui played by Al Pacino, co-starring Steve Buscemi as Givola, Billy Crudup as Flake, Charles Durning as Dogsborough, Paul Giamatti as Dullfeet, John Goodman as Giri, Chazz Palminteri as Roma, Lothaire Bluteau as Fish, Jacqueline McKenzie as Dockdaisy, Linda Emond as Betty Dullfeet, and Tony Randall (who also produced) as the actor, with an ensemble that included Sterling K. Brown, Ajay Naidu, Dominic Chianese, Robert Stanton, John Ventimiglia, and William Sadler.
[12] The Classic Stage Company tackled it again in 2018, directed by John Doyle with Raúl Esparza in the title role and Eddie Cooper and Elizabeth A. Davis in the supporting cast.
[14] Most recently in 2017, Bruce Norris' adapted version of the play was performed at the Donmar Warehouse in London, with Lenny Henry starring as Arturo Ui, and directed by Simon Evans.
[15] The role of Ui has been played by such other notable actors as Peter Falk, Griff Rhys Jones, Leonard Rossiter, Antony Sher, Nicol Williamson, Henry Goodman[16] Hugo Weaving,[17] and Jean Vilar.
[citation needed] A production by the Sydney Old Tote Theatre Company was filmed for Australian television in 1972 with John Bell in the title role[18] and Helen Morse as Dockdaisy.
Brecht's answer was, in part Ui is a parable play, written with the aim of destroying the dangerous respect commonly felt for great killers.
Lines from the play are quoted at the end of Cross of Iron, a 1977 drama war film directed by Sam Peckinpah: "Do not rejoice in his defeat, you men.
[22] In the final episode of the first season of Being Human, the vampire Herrick quotes the play shortly before the werewolf George kills him: "The world was almost won by such an ape!