I, honest Dogsborough
I recently was cast as Dogsborough in Bertold Brecht's The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui. Ui is the a very thinly veiled allegory about Hitler's rise to power and his taking of Austria, in which Brecht points out to the audience, "You could have stopped this, and you didn't."
While Arturo Ui is the allegorical stand-in for Hitler, Dogsborough stands in for Paul von Hindenburg.
So today we're going to have a quick intro of Hindenburg!
Paul von Hindenburg was born in 1847 and died in 1934, making him ancient, which is talked about a lot in the play. I am on old, old man, with very white hair. He was in the military, his first stint lasting 46 years, followed by retirement and then joining again in WWI. He was elected as president of Germany in 1925, at the age of 78. At the age of 84, he ran for reelection, even though he was not well, because he was believed to be the only candidate who had a chance at beating Hitler. As the government fell apart, after years of trying to keep Hitler out, he finally gave up and appointed Hitler as Chancellor.
This play is about standing up against evil, and my character has to learn that I, honest Dogsborough, made a serious error. I try to protect the town's opinion of me, rather than my integrity, and the cover up of one small mistake snowballs into the resistible rise of Arturo Ui. Resist evil, my friends. Do what's right, even when it means people will be angry, because staying silent in the face of evil is how evil rises.
While Arturo Ui is the allegorical stand-in for Hitler, Dogsborough stands in for Paul von Hindenburg.
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| Can't you see the resemblance? |
So today we're going to have a quick intro of Hindenburg!
Paul von Hindenburg was born in 1847 and died in 1934, making him ancient, which is talked about a lot in the play. I am on old, old man, with very white hair. He was in the military, his first stint lasting 46 years, followed by retirement and then joining again in WWI. He was elected as president of Germany in 1925, at the age of 78. At the age of 84, he ran for reelection, even though he was not well, because he was believed to be the only candidate who had a chance at beating Hitler. As the government fell apart, after years of trying to keep Hitler out, he finally gave up and appointed Hitler as Chancellor.
This play is about standing up against evil, and my character has to learn that I, honest Dogsborough, made a serious error. I try to protect the town's opinion of me, rather than my integrity, and the cover up of one small mistake snowballs into the resistible rise of Arturo Ui. Resist evil, my friends. Do what's right, even when it means people will be angry, because staying silent in the face of evil is how evil rises.
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