The Threepenny Opera @ Her Majesty’s Theatre, Adelaide 6/3/2024

One of the 2024 Adelaide Festival key works is The Threepenny Opera directed by Barrie Kosky. Kosky is no stranger to the Festival bringing some brilliant productions over the last few years like Saul and The Magic Flute. Kosky was also the Adelaide Festival’s youngest-ever artistic director in 1996 and has been chief director of Berlin’s Komische Opera company where this current production of The Threepenny Opera originated.

The Threepenny Opera is a famous, radical and revolutionary piece which arguably changed the history of musical theatre in the twentieth Century. Bertolt Brecht originally wrote it in 1928 with music composed by Kurt Weill and it is based on John Gay’s 18th-century English ballad opera, The Beggar’s Opera.

Set in Victorian London, it focuses on the amoral antihero Macheath (AKA Mack the Knife/ Mackie Messer) and his lovers and enemies. These characters are all despicable in their own way and you would not want to meet them in real life. The performers are all highly energetic and brilliant singers and will be heading back to perform the show again in Berlin at the end of March.

The band sat in front of the actors and they sounded incredible and most of them had to play multiple instruments throughout the performance. Weill’s score shows the influence of both German dance music and jazz of the time. This musical has one of the most iconic songs called “Mac the Knife” which is a murder ballad which has become a popular standard far more widely known than the play itself via countless versions by performers as diverse as Louis Armstrong, Frank Sinatra, Nick Cave and many others.

The first two parts have the actors crawl, climb and writhe around this fantastic Escher-like scaffolding navigating their way through this metropolis. We were advised that the hydraulics used to move the scaffolding around had a few teething problems tonight but from where I was everything seemed to be working perfectly. The third and final part had the scaffolding pulled back and mostly used simple but highly effective bright white lights shining on the performers.

Although it was written nearly a hundred years ago it seems contemporary due to the radical social and political commentary that seems to mirror current events. Kosky has given this musical a lightness and a wit to it as well especially when the Fourth Wall is broken many times when the performers address the audience directly and is a style originally invented by Bertolt Brecht.

I look forward to Kosky being invited back again soon to direct another Adelaide Festival show.

Adelaide Festival Review By Richard De Pizzol

For tickets and show info head to the Adelaide Festival…