In The Press
The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui
As far-right authoritarians gain power around the world (cough, cough), artists in our community have been seeking ways to produce works that meet these unprecedented times. Petaluma’s Mercury Theater has chosen a play by German playwright Bertolt Brecht. He saw the writing on the wall in Germany and fled his country before World War II. While waiting in Finland to immigrate to the United States in 1941, Brecht expanded on one of his earlier works. That work became The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui. It’s refreshing to see Brecht’s somewhat-obscure allegory about Hilter’s ascension being produced locally and with such a dedicated cast. This saga of a mobster on a despotic tear, directed by Keith Baker, runs through Nov. 16 at the old Cinnabar Theater in Petaluma.
The plays of Bertolt Brecht can sometimes be an acquired taste for many theatergoers. Larger-than-life characters, rhetorical speeches, broad farce mixed with political satire that can feel like being hit over the head with a hammer – it’s a lot. Especially when there is almost three hours of it. But for all that, Mercury Theater’s current production of “The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui” is one you absolutely shouldn’t miss. Arturo Ui (Kevin Bordi) is a small-time Chicago gangster who seizes an opportunity to rise meteorically to the top through corruption, bribery and violence. The first part of the play deals with cauliflowers and an extensive cast of characters that can be quite confusing to follow. My advice is, don’t worry about the ins-and-outs of the plot. As the play picks up steam, you’ll certainly get the message.
As far-right authoritarians gain power around the world (cough, cough), artists in our community have been seeking ways to produce works that meet these unprecedented times. Petaluma’s Mercury Theater has chosen a play by German playwright Bertolt Brecht. He saw the writing on the wall in Germany and fled his country before World War II. While waiting in Finland to immigrate to the United States in 1941, Brecht expanded on one of his earlier works. That work became The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui. It’s refreshing to see Brecht’s somewhat-obscure allegory about Hilter’s ascension being produced locally and with such a dedicated cast. This saga of a mobster on a despotic tear, directed by Keith Baker, runs through Nov. 16 at the old Cinnabar Theater in Petaluma.
In 1941, as Bertolt Brecht anxiously awaited his visa to the United States while cooling his heels in Helsinki, Finland, he began working on “The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui,” a satirical parable that would serve as both a personal reckoning and a pointed commentary on the rise of fascism. The play, which he wrote in just three weeks, would ultimately provide him with a way to process his complex feelings about his homeland — a country he had fled eight years earlier after the ascent of Adolf Hitler. “Arturo Ui” imagines a Chicago overtaken by a brutal, if dim-witted, gangster, whose gradual rise to power eerily mirrors Hitler’s own rise in 1930s Germany. Though Brecht completed the work in 1941, it would not be produced in German until 1958 and not in English until 1961.
Pins & Needles
If an obscure satirical musical review written nearly 100 years ago hits one right in the gut because of its social relevance, they might just be living in today’s America. History, they say, has a tendency to repeat itself, and it is the duty of artists to illuminate this with works that speak to the times. Mercury Theatre opens their debut season with just such a work. Pins and Needles, stage directed by Eileen Morris, with gorgeous musical direction from Jared Emerson-Johnson, runs through Sept. 14 at the site of the former Cinnabar Theater in Petaluma.
“Pins and Needles” is the opening production of the new Mercury Theater’s first full season. American composer Harold Rome originally wrote the show’s music and lyrics for a local theater company in 1937 (borrowing a melody or two from other composers, as with one recognizable Gilbert & Sullivan tune). Shortly after opening, it was taken up by the International Ladies’ Garment Workers’ Union (ILGWU), which was then on strike. The union sponsored an inexpensive production of the revue as an entertainment for its members, casting cutters, sewing machine operators and other factory workers. The ILGWU production was so successful that in 1938 it was performed at the White House for President Roosevelt and the First Lady. More information about the historical context of the show is provided in the Mercury’s helpful program notes, which include a “content warning” about several period-specific references that are generally recognized as offensive today.
Trouble in Tahiti & Service Provider
Setting up shop in the space vacated last year by Cinnabar – which is currently presenting its shows at Sonoma State while a new performance space is under construction at the Petaluma Village outlet mall – Lichenstein is one of many Mercury Theater volunteers working to carry on the vision of Marvin Klebe, the late opera singer who founded the performance venue on Petaluma Boulevard over 50 years ago. Together with long-time collaborator Mary Chun, Lichenstein is at work directing a new production of Leonard Bernstein’s “Trouble In Tahiti,” which will open on June 14, and run Saturdays and Sundays for two weekends. Suggested by Chun, who music directs the show, “Trouble in Tahiti” is just 45-minutes long, with a score and libretto written by Bernstein in 1952, during his honeymoon.
My guests on the 06/19/25 “Theatre Thursday” segment on The Drive on 95.5 were Jared Emerson-Johnson, President of the Board of Mercury Theater of Petaluma, and mezzo-soprano/actress Leandra Ramm. Leandra is currently appearing in the one-act operas Trouble in Tahiti and Service Provider, running in tandem at Mercury Theater in Petaluma through June 22.
When Petaluma’s Mercury Theater took over the historic hillside spot from which Cinnabar Theater departed last year, one of the new company’s promises was to continue staging English language operas on the little stage where Cinnabar’s founder, Marvin Klebe, brought popular, accessible opera to town over 50 years ago. That promise will be made good on this June, when stage director Elly Lichenstein and musical director Mary Chun undertake Leonard Bernstein’s jazzy gem “Trouble in Tahiti,” running for just four performances on June 14, 15, 21 and 22. “Trouble in Tahiti,” which first premiered in 1952, is a one-act opera presented in seven scenes, with an all-English libretto written by Bernstein, who rarely wrote the words to accompany his music, generally collaborating with famous librettists.
Meet Me at Dawn
A truly interesting and unique play by British playwright Zinnie Harris, Meet Me At Dawn is the kind of programming theaters should be scrambling to include in their seasons. Raw, yet refined in its gorgeous writing, the story will suck one in and spit them out. It’s the first fully-staged production by Mercury Theater, the North Bay’s newest theater company. The show runs in Petaluma in the former Cinnabar Theater space through April 19. What’s so effective is that one can easily imagine oneself in the place of our two characters, long-time couple Robyn and Helen (played with conviction by the unfussy and moving work of Amanda Vitiellio and Ilana Niernberger), who find themselves marooned on an island after a horrific boating accident.
My guests on the first of two “Theatre Thursday” segments on 04/03/25 on The Drive on 95.5 were sound designer Jared Emerson-Johnson and cast member Amanda Vitiello from the Mercury Theater production of Meet Me at Dawn. The show runs in Petaluma through April 19.
In the long-running BBC radio show “Desert Island Discs,” celebrities are asked to name the pieces of music they would most want to have with them were they ever castaways on a deserted island. Their answers often reveal fascinating details about the castaway’s view of the world and their own place in it. Just for fun, during a recent Wednesday evening rehearsal at Petaluma’s Mercury Theater, the cast and director of the upcoming play “Meet Me at Dawn” – about two women stranded on a remote beach after a boating accident – were posed the same situation: Island. Stranded. Music.