“Most of all, darling public, what you’ll see is all true—

Nothing’s invented, and nothing is new,

Nothing was scrubbed for the kids—or for you.”

The Announcer makes the allegory explicit and, in doing so, reveals the intention of the play. The play strives not to describe the rise to power of a man like Arturo Ui or Adolf Hitler, but to impress upon the audience the importance of stopping such a rise, introducing the theme of The Nature of Complicity and Resistance. The play is stridently political from the opening lines, functioning as a call to action against everything that is about to unfold.

“They run like rats from the sinking ship,

Friend turns foe, servants won’t serve,

And our good old pal from the snack bar

Gives us the cold shoulder.

Where do morals go in times like these?”

The difficulties facing the Trust mirror those of most Germans in the 1920s-1930s. The harsh material reality bends the morals of those involved, making them desperate for any solution, no matter how immoral they recognize it to be. In “times like these” (8), the characters accept that their morality gives way to desperation, introducing The Dangers of Greed and Self-Interest into the play.

“He’s honest. And what’s more: he’s perceived as honest.”

Honesty is important, but not as important as the perception of honesty. Arturo Ui is not an honest man, for example, but people believe his lies and believe him to be honest. This allows him to lie at will, creating a false