A gangster drama in the style of the American 1920s gradually turns into a parable about the formation of another dictator. Taking over trade in Chicago, the bandit Arturo not only rises to wealth and power - he destroys souls - buys, corrupts. Ui's career is unstoppable among corrupt government men, greedy merchants and helpless commoners. Brecht conceived his satirical pamphlet on Hitler and his accomplices in forced emigration. At that time, in his homeland, in Germany, Nazism was only gaining ground, and no one knew what tragic consequences it would lead to. But Brecht sensed the coming catastrophe and tried to warn about it. More than 80 years have passed since that time, several generations have changed. It seemed that everything remained in the distant past. But today, what seemed completely unreal, has acquired visible, grim outlines - a great war has broken out in the center of Europe. A new Arturo Ui - our contemporary - entered the arena of history. Brecht's play is divided into separate chapters.
The playwright gave short comments to each chapter. This is a reference to certain historical events that became milestones in Hitler's career. Modern history has written new commentaries for the chapters of this play. Because if you recall the biography of the modern dictator, you are struck by the many direct parallels with the events of Brecht's play. Only the timeline is somewhat different. But the same mechanisms, the same human defects, worked in the transformation of a petty scoundrel into a bloody tyrant. According to the Brechtian tradition, the performance includes songs performed live.
Dmytro Bogomazov is a Ukranian director, theatre theacher, Honoured Artist of Ukraine. He was born in 1964, and spent his childhood and went to school in a small town near Kharkiv. Initially, he studied electronic engineering at the Kyiv Polytechnic Institute, but he discontinued his studies and turned to the performing arts. He was admitted to Kyiv National Ivan Karpenko-Kary Theatre, Cinema and Television University. While still studying stage direction, Dmytro Bogomazov created the performance «Enchantress» («The Fortuneless Maiden») by I. Karpenko-Kary, which was awarded the Debut of the Year in 1993, and later went down in Ukrainian theatre history as an example of modern adaptation of classical Ukrainian play. У 1993-2000 та 2011-2017 he worked as a director at the Kyiv Academic Drama and Comedy Theatre on the Left bank of the Dnieper. In 2001 Dmytro Bogomazov have founded Theatre “Vilna Scena” (Open Stage) and until 2011 worked as its artistic director. He is the founder of international Theatre Platform Festival (2002). Since 2017 Dmytro Bogomazov is a chief director of Ivan Franko National Theatre. He has created some 40 productions in Ukraine and abroad (in Poland, France, Russia). Including: W. Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night,1995 and 2017; A Midsummer Night’s Dream, 2003; Hamlet, 2009; Othello,2004; Sweet Dreams (an adaptation of Richard III),2008; Coriolanus, 2018; Sophocles’ Oedipus, 2003; Philoktet-Concert, 1998; an adaptation of novellas by L. Pirandello: Some Wine…or 70 turns, 1996; after the novellas by T. Mann: Deceived one, 1999; after the novellas by Е.-Т.-А.Hofman’s: Throat «SANCTUS», 2001; Georg Buechner’s Woyzeck, 2014; B.-М. Koltés’ Roberto Zucco, 2004; R. Schimmelpfennig’s A Woman From The Past, 2007; an adaptation of Mykhailo Bulgakov novel Morphin, 2002; an adaptation of novellas by V. Stefanyk: Morituri te Salutant, 2003 and 2013; Ivan Franko’s Stolen Happiness, 2020 and other. Works of Dmytro Bogomazov were presented at many international theatre festivals in Ukraine, France, Poland, Hungary, Russia, Belarus, Georgia, Bulgaria, Turkey, Sweden, Norway, Israel, China. He received numerous theatre awards in Ukraine, including the Shevchenko National Prize, the highest artistic award of Ukraine.
