{"id":16427,"date":"2026-01-28T05:15:35","date_gmt":"2026-01-28T05:15:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/?p=16427"},"modified":"2026-01-28T05:15:35","modified_gmt":"2026-01-28T05:15:35","slug":"placebo-make-theatre-debut-with-score-for-brecht-production-by-royal-shakespeare-company-pop-and-rock","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/?p=16427","title":{"rendered":"Placebo make theatre debut with score for Brecht production by Royal Shakespeare Company | Pop and rock"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Alt-rockers Placebo are set to collaborate with the Royal Shakespeare Company<\/a> (RSC) by scoring a new production of Bertolt Brecht\u2019s The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui.<\/p>\n

Written in 1941, the play is about a Chicago mobster who seeks to control the city\u2019s vegetable trade through corruption, intimidation and violence: a clear allegory of how Adolf Hitler had swept to power during the 1930s.<\/p>\n

Mark Gatiss<\/a>, known for The League of Gentlemen, Sherlock and more, will play Ui, in his RSC debut. It will premiere on 11 April at the Swan theatre in Stratford-upon-Avon.<\/p>\n

It is the first theatre work by Placebo, who had a series of major hits in the late 1990s onwards with their muscular gothic rock and sometimes sexually provocative songwriting, including the Top 5 singles Nancy Boy, Pure Morning and You Don\u2019t Care About Us. They have steadily released eight studio albums, with the most recent, Never Let Me Go, giving them their highest ever album chart placing at No 3.<\/p>\n

The band\u2019s Brian Molko and Stefan Olsdal said they were \u201cvery honoured and excited\u201d by the collaboration, adding: \u201cThematically, this cautionary tale from history feels more urgent and prescient than ever, and its relevance to today\u2019s world is very chilling. The creative process for this project was very different for us, sometimes akin to shooting arrows in the dark. So we tried to connect with the psychology of the outsider, as well as taking inspiration from themes of power, alienation and moral decay \u2013 which are at the core of this play.\u201d<\/p>\n

The production\u2019s director, Se\u00e1n Linnen, described Placebo\u2019s score as \u201cglitteringly expansive, darkly seductive and deeply theatrical\u201d.<\/p>\n

<\/svg><\/span>Mark Gatiss in a promotional image for The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Linnen also highlighted the play\u2019s resonances with today\u2019s political reality. \u201cAs the threat from the far-right grows daily at home and abroad, it is our job as artists to speak up and out. There is no other play that interrogates the political moment we are living through more than this one.\u201d<\/p>\n

Despite being written in 1941, The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui wasn\u2019t premiered until after Brecht\u2019s death, in 1958. Recent productions have included one with Lenny Henry<\/a> in the title role at London\u2019s Donmar Warehouse in 2017.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

#Placebo #theatre #debut #score #Brecht #production #Royal #Shakespeare #Company #Pop #rock<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Alt-rockers Placebo are set to… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":16428,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16427"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=16427"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16427\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/16428"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=16427"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=16427"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=16427"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}