'The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui' Debuts At NFCT

NORTH FORK, NY — The curtain rises Friday on the North Fork Community Theatre's spring production of "The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui."

The show, written by Bertolt Brecht, features a cast including Esmeralda Cabrera, Georgia Ciaputa, Tom Ciorciari, Dennis Creighton, Jennifer Eager, Tim Ferris, Bill Gardner, Liam Glueckert, Peter J. Harrington, Christian Lepore, John Lovett, AD Newcomer, Andy O'Brien, Robert Oliver, and Alan Stewart

Colin Palmer is onboard as director and set designer; Laura Pearsall produced the show, which features original music by James Yaiullo. Katrina Lovett serves as costume designer and stage manager and Kayla Lessard, as lighting and video designer, with Mark Heidemann as video consultant.

NFCt described the show: "In 1930s Chicago, mobster Arturo Ui will stop at nothing to control the cauliflower trade. Terror and bloodshed follow. Can anyone stop him?"

The piece is "a dizzyingly intelligent political satire on the (ir)resistibleness of political thuggery," that satirizes the rise of Hitler in Nazi Germany "by dressing it up as 'the gangster film' we thought we knew. In 'Arturo Ui,' the metamorphosis of thug-to-politician through corruption, intimidation and all manner of brutality is thinly masked by a Chicago gangland epic wherein the young Arturo Ui stages a violent takeover of the green-grocer trade," NFCT said.

Performances run through April 2 with shows on Fridays and Saturdays at 8 p.m. and Sundays at 2:30 p.m. Tickets cost $30 and can be purchased here.

As an added benefit and to help facilitate discussions of the play’s themes, each performance will begin with a screening of the 2017 Oscar nominated short documentary "A Night at the Garden." Using only archival footage, the film documents the 1939 rally at Madison Square Garden held by the pro-Nazi group The German-American Bund.

Talkbacks with the cast and creative team will be held after each Sunday performance.