The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui

Prologue

The Announcer outlines the subject of the play and introduces the characters to the audience.

Scene 1a. Financial district.

Flake, Butcher, Mulberry and Clark, members of The Cauliflower Trust (an association of grocers) are bemoaning the depression and the state of the grocery trade in particular. Their colleague, Sheet, is absent as he’s going from bank to bank desperately trying to raise a loan to keep his dockyard business afloat. Arturo Ui has been waiting in their outer office for days to offer his services--he will make the small tradesmen buy the surplus cauliflowers by force. The group agree they’d rather rely on the Salvation Army than go with a gangster like Ui. Flake suggests that they ask for a loan from the City for some ‘future’ dock improvement works. However, Dogsborough, (a business leader/ Mayor ) has thrown the idea out, suspecting rightly that there was no real intention of building anything. The men are bitter about this as they ‘bankrolled’ his