ARTURO UI TRIES AGAIN

The Ivan Franko Theater hosted the premiere of Arturo Ui's Career , based on Bertold Brecht's play The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui (1957) originally staged by Valentyn Kozmenko-Delinde fourteen years ago.

Few lucky devotees watched it on the small stage in 1985, as the cast managed only six performances. The audience consisted mostly of bureaucrats from the Ministry of Culture and Party bosses who felt very uncomfortable. It was supposed to be a classic play written by a German writer respected throughout the world. Yet it was an adventure story about a gangster reaching the summits of power, a far cry from the shining socialist reality, of course. Also, it was burlesque and one could easily draw parallels with Soviet realities. The stage director was criticized, instructed to smooth over the rough edges; he obliged, but this made the play even worse, more pointed. The functionaries thought and thought until they found a brilliant solution to the problem. A team of fire inspectors arrived and ordered the small stage closed while the play was in progress (it has remained closed ever since).

Visiting official offices did no good. For some time afterward Valentyn Kozmenko-Delinde continued working as a director-cum-playwright. Veteran theatergoers surely remember his avant-garde rendition of Shakespeare's Midsummer Night's Dream . Valentyn Rozov's Wood Grouse's Nest was not released due censorship, and Mr. Kozmenko- Delinde's last play at Ivan Franko was Vampilov's June Farewell . A symbolic title, for the director had to leave Ukraine, not to return for a decade. First, he went to Moscow to work on probation with Oleg Yefremov at the Moscow Art Theater, and later to Slovakia where he still works with the Pre я sov theater. His wife Liudmyla is a star there. Three years ago they had a son Kristian. Actually, Kozmenko- Delinde has never severed contact with his native land. Now he often visits Ukraine.

When the idea of reviving Arturo Ui's Career was conceived last year, the first to respond were stage veterans Bohdan Stupka, Les Zadniprovsky, Volodymyr Nychyporenko, Vasyl Mazur, Natalia Lototska, Iryna Doroshenko, and Liudmyla Smorodina. The current rendition is adapted to the big stage, with a different accent. The result is fresh and au courant , as though all those years of oblivion had never happened.

Before the premiere, Valentyn Kozmenko-Delinde admitted the reason for returning to the play now: “In the first place, Brecht has not lost his relevance, and his plays are still interesting. In Career one finds a grotesque reflection of Shakespearean passion. The hero is literally wades over dead bodies on his way to get to the top, smiting one after the other everybody in his way, which now seems more relevant than ever before. Second, the idea of reviving the play was prompted by the Goethe Institute. Third, it was an opportunity to meet my old friends at the Franko Theater and remember the good times when we were young and combative. I am certain the new version won't have a long run. Yes, times have changed and so has this country. We have ourselves changed, yet no one likes it when a nerve is touched. This play makes one to draw a great many parallels.”