The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui
This play by Bertolt Brecht is an odd fusion. Openly intended as a Roman à Clef detailing Hitler's rise to power, while borrowing from gangster tropes and dialect (Ui is basically Al Capone meets Hitler), it's also written in Shakespearean blank verse and shows a certain influence from Julius Caesar.
Tropes used in The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui include:
- Author Tract: like pretty much everything Brecht wrote
- The Bad Guy Wins
- Bilingual Bonus: Character names are often variations of the name of the historical figure they are based on (i.e. Ernst Rohm is now Ernesto Roma), but with Hindenburg, he is called Dogsborough (It's a pun- Hinden sounds like hunden, which means dogs/burg as in burgh/borough)
- Does This Remind You of Anything?: The ending actually has placards indicating what various things should remind you of.
- Foregone Conclusion: It's in the title
- Gangsterland
- Low-Angle Shot: Pretty much required for Ui's ending speech. One production managed to pull this off with fifteen Uis at once.)
- A Nazi by Any Other Name
- New Era Speech: Ui ends the play with one
- Surreal Humor: A staple of Brecht's work, and often used.
- Sophisticated As Hell: Everyone talks like Damon Runyon characters trapped in a Shakespeare play (or maybe Shakespearean actors in a Damon Runyon story?)
- Trippy Finale Syndrome: Commonly used.