Brecht’s satire on the rise of Hitler was written in three furious weeks in 1941 as an angry response to the world’s inability to prevent the rise of fascism in Europe. Over sixty years later the Lyric’s Artistic Director David Farr and Zimbabwean actor Lucian Msamati come together to reinvent the piece, set in modern Africa.

Arturo Ui is a hopeless gangster who knows only the language of the gun. Out of favour with the people because of his lunatic tendencies, Ui finds a way back to power by exposing and then exploiting the corruption of his enemies – with hysterical and devastating results. This new production takes Brecht’s vision and places it into the heart of modern Africa. In a world of hyperinflation and a regime governing through terror and extortion, Brecht’s comic masterpiece gains a frightening new prescience.

Lucian Msamati plays the celebrated lead role, having made his name in the U.K. with an acclaimed lead performance in the Royal Shakespeare Company’s 2006 production of Pericles. He is a founder member of Zimbabwean Theatre Company Over the Edge.

Suitable for theatregoers aged 12 and older.