The Resistible Rise of Dal-su

The same story, from people of another era

More than sixty years have passed since Hitler dreamed of enduring power and Brecht mocked it as a “resistible rise.” Through Chicago gangsters and cauliflower traders in 1941, Brecht examined the bond between American capitalism and the rise of fascism — the intimacy of money and political power, and the human desire behind it.

In the twenty-first century, money is power and power drives the economy. Yet at the centre there is always a human being. What is power to us? Not only in this year of a presidential election but always, power circles around us, just out of reach. The muddy fight among the hoodlum Dal-su, Assemblyman Kang Dok-gu and the traders of the cabbage market holds up a mirror to ourselves — a black comedy with a long aftertaste.

Power: the 21st-century route to the top We were taught that becoming a lawmaker means serving the people; a union head, working for members; a residents’ association head, improving neighbours’ lives; a class president, serving classmates. But what is the reality? Somewhere along the way these roles became positions to rise into rather than to serve from, and power has come to be seen as private property — a means of getting one’s share. Through this play we reconsider what true power is, and how it should be used.

A show that breaks the wall between audience and stage Past and present coexist, and so do actors and spectators: actors leap out of the seats, questions are put to the audience, and the actor on stage may also be the spectator sitting next to you.

Germany’s Brecht meets Korea’s Arirang Brecht is dead, but his work has taken root from Germany across Europe, the Americas and Asia, including Korea. Now his story is told by Arirang — a leading company of Korean national and original theatre known for the Korean movement and colour of The Jeong Yak-yong Project, The Heavenly Clock and Song of the Wanderers — as the great German master meets a Korean people’s theatre.