Capitol Hill Arts Center
closes Aug. 22
web site
By Tom Scanlon
John Abramsom skillfully directs a cast of 30 -- and live music -- to pump energy into this complex, layered Bertolt Brecht play. Abramson also adapted the 1941 German play, written by Brecht in exile from the Nazi regime.
Brecht wrote this as a vicious satire of Hitler's weird, awful rise to power, yet it also works on its own as a brilliant piece of absurdity, with a cast of crooks figuring out how to fix the cauliflower market in Chicago -- and beyond.
Abramson pulls off the tightrope-walking trick required in directing this play, which melds Shakespeare and Runyon, with a hearty dose of B-movie talk. The irony bubbles below the surface in this gloriously camp-free production. The actors are entirely committed to their roles, giving the show consistency and depth.
It's a long play in a hot (no air conditioning) theater, and the second act doesn't match the extraordinarily funny and comically energetic first. The show begins to take itself too seriously in the latter stages, or perhaps just runs out of comic creativity.
Even so, "Ui" is always interesting to watch, for the rich acting going on here.
Darragh Kennan, as bumbling mob leader Arturo Ui, bounces between Pee-wee Herman and Nathan Lane, yet also shows he can muscle up as Ui gets confident and brutal. Still, his best scenes are comic, as in the brilliantly directed and acted sequence in which a bad Shakespearean actor -- Karl Keff, playing the part so wonderfully you wish the scene would spin off into a mini-play of its own-- teaches Ui how to talk and walk.
Randy Foss, Don Carter and Sean Gormley are terrific in different ways as thugs fighting for power. Gormley's caricature is almost cartoonish, yet it works, and each of these three lays on a thick ethnic accent to spice the dialogue.
In a play dominated by men, a few women shine. Betty Campbell makes one forget the cross casting in playing Dogsborough; she has a very funny, almost magical soliloquy, describing how her character was seduced by the landscape (ironic, against the bare stage). And Danielle Slavick expertly sets the time and mood with two curtain-raising songs, the first a solo vamp, the second an Italian speed duet with Gormely.
The set is spare, with just a few props showing up occasionally across a broad stage; all the money and focus is poured into the costumes, magnificent vintage suits and dresses. The live music is well done and a nice touch, but it is the acting that makes this show so riveting, pitch-perfect performances that just might set the bar for Seattle comedy.
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