Tom Kuhn Archives - The Play Podcast

111 – The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui by Bertolt Brecht

by Douglas Schatz | Jul 2, 2026 | Podcast Episodes

Mark Gatiss as Arturo Ui
Royal Shakespeare Company, Stratford-upon-Avon
April 2026
Photo by Marc Brenner

111 – The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui by Bertolt Brecht

Bertolt Brecht’s political satire, The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui, is what its announcer calls a “gangster spectacle”. Set in the 1930s Chicago of Al Capone, Brecht presents a parody of the rise of Hitler through the character of the gangster Arturo Ui, who by extortion and violence seizes control of the local vegetable market. Brecht, who fled Nazi Germany in 1933, wrote the play in a matter of weeks in March 1941, while he and his family were in Finland awaiting visas to travel to the United States. Although he hoped to see the play produced in America, it was 18 years before it had its first stage production, in Berlin in 1959, three years after Brecht’s own death. This first production by the Berliner Ensemble theatre company that he had founded on his return to Germany in 1947, featured his widow and his daughter in the cast, as well as his son-in-law who starred as Arturo Ui. The production ran for an incredible 15 years.

As we recorded this episode a new production of the play by the Royal Shakespeare Company is playing at the Swan Theatre in Stratford-upon-Avon, starring Mark Gatiss in a wonderfully oleaginous portrayal of the title character. The show is exuberant and funny, but also chilling, because the central message of the play feels disconcertingly topical. It is a universal cry for vigilance against the rise of unscrupulous, populist leaders who threaten democratic societies and global peace.

So, I am delighted to be joined by two guests who are eminently qualified to guide us through Brecht’s provocative parable. First is playwright Stephen Sharkey, whose translation of the text of the play is the one currently being performed by the RSC. And my second guest is Tom Kuhn, who is Emeritus Fellow in 20th century German Literature at St Hugh’s college, Oxford University, and who has written extensively about Brecht and his work.

Stephen Sharkey

Playwright Stephen Sharkey has translated and adapted a wide variety of classic and contemporary stories for the stage, including works by Euripides, Aristophanes, Charles Dickens, Leo Tolstoy, Fyodor Dostoevsky, Georges Feydeau and F. Scott Fitzgerald. His adaptation of Bertolt Brecht’s The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui was first produced at the Liverpool Playhouse in 2011, and revised and revived at the RSC’s Swan Theatre in Stratford-upon-Avon in 2026.

His play The May Queen was also prodcued at the Liverpool Playhouse, and he has written four Christmas shows for Northern Stage in Newcastle, all directed by Erica Whyman. His adaptation of Zadie Smith’s White Teeth was produced at the Kiln Theatre in London in 2018, directed by Indhu Rubasingham.

Recommended Play

Stephen recommended The Oresteia by Aeschylus.

Dr Tom Kuhn

Tom Kuhn is an Emeritus Fellow of 20th century German Literature at St Hugh’s College, University of Oxford.

He is also the General Editor of Bloomsbury Methuen Drama’s Bertolt Brecht publications. which include not only Brecht’s plays, but also volumes such as Brecht on Art and Politics (2003), Brecht on Theatre (2014), Brecht on Performance (2014) and Bertolt Brecht’s Refugee Conversations (2019).

Tom is the co-translator of Bertolt Brecht – Love Poems (2014) and Bertolt Brecht – Collected Poems (2018), both published by W.W. Norton and Company.

Recommended Play

Tom recommended Peter Brook’s adaptation of The Mahabharata.
He also recommended The Caucasion Chalk Circle as his favourite Brecht play.
Listen here to our episode on that play: 053 The Caucasion Chalk Circle

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115 – The Dance of Death by August Strindberg

Oct 6, 2026 | Podcast Episodes

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August Strindberg’s The Dance of Death is set in a remote army base on the coast of Sweden, where an army captain and his wife are trapped together in an unhappy marriage. The captain, bitter at his lack of promotion, and his wife, frustrated at having been forced to give up her career as an actress, occupy their empty hours tearing into each other in a brutal dance of mutual cruelty.

Strindberg’s scorching portrait of marital strife was written in 1900, but has had a lasting influence. Arthur Miller dubbed Strindberg, “the mad inventor of modern theatre”, and echoes of his unflinching dissection of marital discord can be seen in the plays of Edward Albee, Tennessee Williams, Eugene O’Neill, and John Osborne.

Sir Richard Eyre adapted and directed a wonderful production of Dance of Death at the Orange Tree Theatre in Richmond upon Thames earlier this year, and I am delighted that Sir Richard joins me in this episode to guide us through Strindberg’s blistering onslaught on marriage.

114 – Love’s Labour’s Lost by William Shakespeare

Sep 22, 2026 | Podcast Episodes

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William Shakespeare’s Love’s Labour’s Lost is described on the title page in the first publication of its text in 1598 as “A Pleasant Conceited Comedie.” I imagine that the epithets were intended to highlight the play’s courtly aesthetic, its frothy merry-go-round of courtship, and above all perhaps, its ostentatiously intricate word play. For it is a play rich in the love and perils of language.

I am joined to assay Shakespeare’s conceited comedy by the Artistic Director of the Orange Tree Theatre in Richmond upon Thames, Tom Littler. In the summer of 2026 Tom adapted and directed a magical double bill of Shakespeare, producing Love’s Labour’s Lost and Much Ado About Nothing in repertory, and staging them both ‘en plein air’.

113 – Arcadia by Tom Stoppard

Aug 24, 2026 | Podcast Episodes

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Tom Stoppard’s 1993 play, Arcadia, is viewed by many as his finest play, renowned for the breadth of its intellectual interrogations and its formal invention. The play is a structural masterpiece of ideas, as well as a teasing detective story, joyous comedy, and emotionally rich exploration of love and loss.

As we record this episode a wonderful new production of Arcadia is playing at the Duke of York’s theatre in London’s West End, following its acclaimed run at the Old Vic theatre earlier this year. I am delighted to share the challenge and the pleasure of exploring Stoppard’s dazzling drama with the director of the new production, Carrie Cracknell.

Tom Kuhn

by Douglas Schatz | Jul 1, 2026 | Contributor

Tom Kuhn

Tom Kuhn is an Emeritus Fellow of 20th century German Literature at St Hugh’s College, University of Oxford.

Tom is the co-translator of Bertolt Brecht – Love Poems (2014) and Bertolt Brecht – Collected Poems (2018), both published by W.W. Norton and Company.

Podcast Episode(s)

111 - The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui by Bertolt Brecht

Recommended Play(s)