The Threepenny Opera

Synopsis

This play takes John Gay's The Beggar's Opera as its catalyst. It presents the thieves, whores and poverty-stricken people of London. At its centre is the relationship between Polly Peachum and Mack the Knife, but the story is littered with other colourful characters- the drunken Mrs Peachum, the greedy Mr Peachum, Mack's friend police commissioner Brown, Mack's gang, Jenny and Lucy (two of Mack's other female followers) and the beggars who play pitiable parts in order to make money. A happy ending is manufactured as a meta-theatrical device but the final scene makes it obvious that for the poorest of society, "the Queen's riding messenger comes in time very rarely". Through witty dialogue and memorable songs this play critiques the very structures of society.  Theatre Workshop extended this aspect of the play and used it to expose the hidden truth about the death and sterilisation of many thousands of disabled people during the Nazi Holocaust. Using a cast of some of the country's best disabled actors and some distressingly poignant back projection the audience is left wondering why such crimes are not commemorated. Mark Brown says that in The Threepenny Opera "the Workshop has, surely, achieved its best production of recent years"