Tag Archives: The Threepenny Opera

Book and Lyrics: Bertolt Brecht Music: Kurt Weill and Elizabeth Hauptmann Director: David Thacker   Reviewer: Harriet Mallion Adapted from John Gay’s 18th-century ballad opera, The Beggar’s Opera, Bertolt Brecht’s iconic play The Threepenny Opera traditionally offers a socialist critique to a struggling world. The latest production from The Octagon transforms the dominant themes of poverty and corruption into a ...

Writer: Carl Grose Music: Charles Hazlewood Director: Mike Shepherd Reviewer: Stephen M Hornby A menacing stage picture greets the audience on arrival. Blackened scaffolding can be seen through the fog that hangs mid-air. It stretches from floor to ceiling, suggested a skyline of polluted brick in a broken city. Figures mill about in the shadows of the stage and around ...

  Writer: Carl Grose Music: Charles Hazlewood Director: Mike Shepherd Reviewer: Katherine Kirwin   Kneehigh burst onto the stage at HOME in their recognisably energetic, playful style and dragged us into their dark musical portraying a world hanging by a thread. Dead Dog in a Suitcase is based on John Gay’s A Beggar’s Opera and Brecht’s The Threepenny Opera and ...

Writer: Bertolt Brecht Music: Kurt Weill Lyrics: Jeremy Sams Directors: Peter Rowe, Jenny Sealey Reviewer: Katie Lee ‘If the misery is genuine, no one will believe it.’ This contemporary adaptation of Brecht’s Threepenny Opera by Graeae Theatre Company explores poverty, disability and common reaction to it, updating the text for our present era of government cuts. Here, the beggars are ...

Music: Kurt Weill Lyrics: Bertolt Brecht, translated by Jeremy Sams Book: Bertolt Brecht, translated by Robert David MacDonald Directors: Peter Rowe and Jenny Sealey Reviewer: Selwyn Knight Brecht based his Threepenny Opera on the earlier English work, The Beggar’s Opera by John Gay. Written in German, it has frequently been translated into English, with two of its songs, ‘Mack the ...

Writer: Bertolt Brecht Composer: Kurt Weil English Dialogue: Robert David Macdonald English Lyrics: Jeremy Sams Directors: Jenny Sealey and Peter Rowe Reviewer: Glen Pearce   There’s rebellion in the air at The New Wolsey Theatre. Banners are strewn across the foyer and auditorium, and cast members seem to be busking in the box office. It’s not some scheme to highlight ...

In our second instalment of our 2014 previews our regional editors in Scotland, Central and South West talk us through the productions that are getting them excited throughout the year. SCOTLAND: Lauren Humphries The temperature is falling, the urge to hibernate is strong but 2014 promises to be a knockout year in Scottish theatre. You’d be forgiven for thinking that ...

Ipswich’s New Wolsey Theatre has today announced their Spring 2014 season. Musicals and drama both feature strongly in the line-up, with the Suffolk venue working with a number of regional venues to bring productions to the town. Working with Nottingham Playhouse, Birmingham Rep, West Yorkshire Playhouse and Graeae Theatre Company, the New Wolsey will stage a brand new production of ...