Die Dreigroschenoper
Theatre

The epic theatre demands humour and imagination

Peachum, successful in the begging business, and Mackie Messer, gangster boss, fight for supremacy in London's underworld. Brecht shows them as businessmen with whom we citizens in the audience have more in common than we think. In his celebrated production, director Antú Romero Nunes alienates the audience. He has Brecht appear in person and proclaim: «An audience member without imagination can go straight home at this event». On an almost empty stage, everything here is imagination, tempo and play.

If you take it so seriously, the ‹Die Dreigroschenoper› can be performed today after all.

The Mirror

Jörg Pohl, actor and co-director of the drama department at Theater Basel, was recently awarded the Gertrude Eysoldt Ring. He is on stage as Peachum in ‹Die Dreigroschenoper›.

Theater Basel presents Brecht's ‹Die Dreigroschenoper› and why the play is still relevant today.

Nunes' ‹Die Dreigroschenoper› is a homage to Brecht. Played with virtuosity, fast-paced with clever wit. In short: great fun, which the Basel audience celebrated with much laughter at the Basel premiere.

The ensemble takes the audience on a journey through London's underworld with a generous helping of enthusiasm, wit and great speed.

And yet this sound is at least as good as the spoken text, when Weill traces classical music through the harmonies of jazz, parodies marches and pop songs and copies the rhythms of dance music. The ensemble transports these moods conscientiously, playing for precision rather than risk.

Epic theater is the name given to this type of drama, which involves acting and storytelling, and one of its pillars are the alienation effects that director Antu Romero Nunes brilliantly takes to extremes.

The moral of the story? Hard to say. But Brecht himself also wanted his theater not only to enlighten, but also to entertain. And he achieves this brilliantly on the main stage of Theater Basel.