One of Brecht’s most acclaimed works will be brought to life by a cast of Cambridge University students from 6 March.
One of Brecht’s most acclaimed works will be brought to life by a cast of Cambridge University students from 6 March.
In a world of beggars and whores, lust, crime and corruption thrive. An elegant yet bitter indictment of base society, Brecht’s ‘The Threepenny Opera’ is a darkly fascinating work, a seductive drama blending seamlessly with the jazzy syncopation of Kurt Weill’s inventive score.
Envisage a place where one lives in both ecstasy and torture and there you are, right at the centre of the play - the dirty nesting brothels of Soho, the sleazy jazz bars and the beggars on the pavements.
The Threepenny Opera first found success in Berlin in 1928, where it was seen as revolutionary - this piece is neither a play nor a musical, nor indeed an opera, but instead it is some kind of synthesis of all three.
In 1954 The Threepenny Opera went to America and became the best selling musical of its time - fascinating given that this play, which has strongly Communist undertones, was being performed at the height of McCarthyism. But as Eric Gordon, one of the first people to review the play, rightly comments:
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