Palmer’s College drama students are to stage a production of Bertolt Brecht’s The Threepenny Opera.
The Threepenny Opera proclaims itself “an opera for beggars,” and was an attempt both to satirise traditional opera and operetta and to create a new kind of musical theatre based on the theories of two young German artists, composer Kurt Weill and poet-playwright Bert Brecht.
The show opens with a mock-Baroque overture, a nod to Threepenny’s source, The Beggar’s Opera, a brilliantly successful parody of Handel’s operas written by John Gay in 1728.
In a brief prologue following the overture, a shabby figure comes onstage with a barrel organ and launches into a song chronicling the crimes of the notorious bandit and womaniser Macheath, "Mack the Knife."
The setting is a fair in Soho (London), just before Queen Victoria's coronation.
The play is idea for students currently studying Performing Arts or Drama at GCSE level. It will enable them to gain an idea of the level and type of performance they will be producing if they continue their interest in drama onto the next level.
It will be performed on November 5 and 6 at the college on Chadwell Road, Grays.
The show lasts for around two hours including a 15 minute interval. Tickets are £5 for adults, £4 for children.
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