Described by Brecht as ''a gangster play that would recall certain events familiar to us all'', The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui is a witty and savage satire of the rise of Hitler – recast by Brecht into a small-time Chicago gangster''s takeover of the city''s greengrocery trade. Using a wide range of parody and pastiche – from Al Capone to Shakespeare''s Richard III and Goethe''s Faust – Brecht''s compelling parable continues to have relevance wherever totalitarianism appears today.

Written during the Second World War in 1941, the play was one of the Berliner Ensemble''s most outstanding box-office successes in 1959, and has continued to attract a succession of major actors, including Leonard Rossiter, Christopher Plummer, Antony Sher and Al Pacino.

This version, originally translated by George Tabori, has been revised by leading Scottish playwright Alistair Beaton.