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The Threepenny Opera on the STC Blog
  • Richard Gill settles the score on The Threepenny Opera
    Since opening at the Sydney Theatre at the start of September, the Victorian Opera/Malthouse production of The Threepenny Opera has inspired discussion about and praise for the arrangement of the score performed by the orchestra. There have been suggestions the music is a "new" arrangement of Weill'...
  • "A state of being": Playwright Raimondo Cortese on the nature of theatre
    Theatre can be defined in a narrow way, i.e. as a live performance within a theatre venue, or broadly to the extent that it includes the entire scope of human activity, including even the observation of the natural or molecular world. Theatre can be a state of being. It is capable of synthesisi...
  • The Perfect Villain: Eddie Perfect on becoming Brecht’s famous bad guy
    See the full gallery on Posterous For a performer whose most famous turns have been as Alexander Downer and Shane Warne, The Threepenny Opera’s Macheath may not strike one as an appropriate follow-up. Unless one takes into consideration that this performer’s Downer was a fishnet-stockinged, s...
 
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Sydney Theatre Company and Asteron present a Malthouse Melbourne and Victorian Opera production
Bertolt Brecht & Kurt Weill’s
The Threepenny Opera
Text by Raimondo Cortese
Lyrics by Jeremy Sams
 
The most notorious anti-hero to storm a stage, Macheath – or Mack The Knife as he’s known on the streets – is the original city crim who’s never met a law, a woman or a cop he couldn’t break. That is until he challenges the supremacy of the Beggar King Peachum and his empire of manufactured woes.

With Peachum and cunning cop Tiger Brown on his case the last thing Mack needs is a couple of molls competing for ownership of him. But when it comes to the ladies, this Lothario throws caution to the wind and leaps in head first. But he’d better watch out… as all smart philanderers know, hell hath no fury like a woman scorned!

Honouring Brecht’s radical vision for an epic theatre, Raimondo Cortese’s vivid adaptation captures the spirit of 1930’s Berlin but superimposes it on to instantly recognisable local streets. Here moralities are gambled by the powerful, and corruption is code for survival among the downtrodden. At the savage heart of Michael Kantor and Richard Gill’s production is Kurt Weill’s raw, jazzy and intensely beautiful music, including the chilling classic, Mack The Knife.

A raucous comedy, bawdy musical and acerbic political satire, this production imperiously shoves aside the pretentions of modern world civility to revel in all that is corrupt and squirming beneath. Dare to imagine a Brechtian Underbelly with songs...

 

SYDNEY THEATRE
Schools Day Wed 14 September
Pre-show Intro 10:30am, 45 minutes
Performance 12:15pm
Duration 2 Hours 40 Minutes, including interval
Post-show Q&A immediately following, 15 minutes

Content Strong adult themes and language

Suits Years 10 - 12

Cost $21/student

 

Curriculum Links: 
Drama - Brecht, Protest/Political theatre

Music - Theatre Music, Music 1900-1945, Music of the 20th and 21st centuries, Music for large ensembles

English - Crime Fiction

History - of interest to those studying: National Study - Germany: Weimar Republic

 

Resources:  Comprehensive student and teacher resources provided

Reviews

“Kantor’s production captures something essential about Brecht: his blasphemously ambiguous sense of fun...this is entertainment in the best sense of the word.” — The Australian


The Threepenny Opera Resources - Pre-production

Download background information and pre-production activities specifically designed to prepare students for this production of The Threepenny Opera.
N.B. Please note, when these resources were written this production was set in Melbourne, it has since been transposed to Sydney for its Sydney season.

The Threepenny Opera Resources - Theatre for Science

Download post-production activities and discussion questions specifically designed to further your exploration of the design elements and directorial concepts of this production of The Threepenny Opera.

N.B. Please note, when these resources were written this production was set in Melbourne, it has since been transposed to Sydney for its Sydney season.

Threepenny Opera Resources - Bad or just Misunderstood?

Download post-production activities and discussion questions specifically designed to further your exploration of the role and function of Macheath as the anti-hero in The Threepenny Opera.

The Threepenny Opera Resources - Playing Politics

Download post-production activities and discussion questions specifically designed to further your exploration of Brecht's use of character for didactic purposes in The Threepenny Opera.

The Threepenny Opera Resources - Right of Reply

Download post-production activities and discussion questions specifically designed to further your skills in responding critically and creatively to Brecht's representations of social relationships in The Threepenny Opera.

Like this? Try this.

Studying Brecht?

You might also be interested in the following Brecht workshop...

 

Brecht Workshop - for more info click here

Dates & Prices

Schools Day Wed 14 September
Pre-show Intro 10:30am, 45 minutes
Performance 12:15pm
Duration 2 Hours 40 Minutes, including interval
Post-show Q&A immediately following, 15 minutes

 

VERY LIMITED AVAILABILITY!!

 

Pre-season Briefing
Tuesday 30 August 6.15pm
Held at The Wharf

Creative Team

Text by Raimondo Cortese
Lyrics by Jeremy Sams

Conductor Richard Gill
Director Michael Kantor
Set Designer Peter Corrigan
Costume Designer Anna Cordingley
Lighting Designer Paul Jackson
Choreographer Kate Denborough

With Paul Capsis, Eddie Perfect, Dimity Shepherd, Grant Smith, John Xintavelonis

Music performed live by Ensemble Weill

2011 Booking Forms