The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui

‘This city’s sick. You need me. Arturo Ui.’

A small-time crook with big boss ambitions.

While the Great Depression inflicts hardship across the nation, Chicago’s underworld festers with sex, scandal, violence and corruption. It’s the perfect storm for a schemer like Ui, his reputation as hot as hell.

Feeding on fear, Ui and his ruthless cronies make back-alley deals to protect the workers. So far, so bad. But his helpless targets watch on as Ui’s influence gains dangerous momentum and his venom threatens to seep through the markets, politics and the law to seize the city – and beyond. This is a man on a mission for power. Will anyone stop him?

The simmering streets of Chicago come to the Swan Theatre for Seán Linnen’s RSC directorial debut. Double Olivier Award-winner Mark Gatiss debuts as the Notorious Arturo Ui, in Stephen Sharkey’s version of Brecht’s riotous 1941 ‘gangster spectacle’, a blistering satire on Hitler’s ascent to power.