Chicago. A city of jazz and gangsters, prohibition and poverty. The murk of the Great Depression opens the door for a small-time crook like Arturo Ui to make a big name for himself. Feeding on the city’s fear, Ui and his cronies make back-alley deals to protect the workers. What starts as a little bribery and corruption, begins to take a poisonous root, and Ui’s influence gains a dangerous momentum that threatens to seep through the markets, politics, and the law itself to seize the entire city.
The design embraced Brecht’s ideas that the theatricality of fascism is part what draws people to it, bringing it to bear literally through heightened, stylised characterisations, ironic vintage versions of modern pop underscoring the story, and striking, exaggerated design aesthetics inspired by a mix of fascist propaganda, comic books, and pop art. The 1930’s Chicago skyline looms over the characters, while the floor mirrored the skyline with a modern Chicago cityscape, extending the silhouette into the audience, closing the distance between past and present.

Photography: Graeme Braidwood
Writer: Bruce Norris, after Bertolt Brecht
Director: Anna Simpson
Set Design: Lauren Connolly
Costume Design: Victoria Youngson
Lighting Design: Charlie Powell
Sound Design: Jude Taylor
Voice and Accent Coach: Gemma Boaden
Stage Manager on the Book: Libby Glass
Assistant Stage Manager: Ellie Sanders
Programmer (Lighting): Lewis Byfield
Costume Construction: Abigail Jackson and Emma Applegate
Shadow to the Director: Lucy Eddington
Young Company Assistant: Sophie-Jay Sanderson
Set Construction: Sam Wilcox, Andy Pike
Scenic Art: Bronwen Herdman