The Threepenny Opera

Bertolt Brecht, John Willett, Ralph Manheim , Ralph Manheim

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Methuen Drama & Non Fict.
01 August 2006

Plays & playscripts

Series: Modern Classics

Based on John Gay's eighteenth century Beggar's Opera, The Threepenny Opera, first staged in 1928 at the Theater am Schiffbauerdamm in Berlin, is a vicious satire on the bourgeois capitalist society of the Weimar Republic, but set in a mock-Victorian Soho. It focuses on the feud between Macheaf - an amoral criminal - and his father in law, a racketeer who controls and exploits London's beggars and is intent on having Macheaf hanged. Despite the resistance by Macheaf's friend the Chief of Police, Macheaf is eventually condemned to hang until in a comic reversal the queen pardons him and grants him a title and land. With Kurt Weill's unforgettable music - one of the earliest and most successful attempts to introduce jazz to the theatre - it became a popular hit throughout the western world.

Published in Methuen Drama's Modern Classics series in a trusted translation by Ralph Manheim and John Willett, this edition features extensive notes and commentary including an introduction to the play, Brecht's own notes on the play, a full appendix of textual variants, a note by composer Kurt Weill, a transcript of a discussion about the play between Brecht and a theatre director, plus editorial notes on the genesis of the play.

By: Bertolt Brecht
Edited by: John Willett, Ralph Manheim
Translated by: Ralph Manheim, John Willett
Imprint: Methuen Drama & Non Fict.
Country of Publication: United Kingdom
Dimensions: Height: 198mm, Width: 129mm, Spine: 9mm
Weight: 174g
ISBN: 9780413390301
ISBN 10: 0413390306
Series: Modern Classics
Pages: 144
Publication Date: 01 August 2006
Audience: General/trade , ELT Advanced
Format: Paperback
Publisher's Status: Active

Bertolt Brecht (1898-1956) is acknowledged as one of the great dramatists whose work has had a considerable influence on the theatre. His landmark plays include Mother Courage and Her Children, The Threepenny Opera, Life of Galileo, and The Caucasian Chalk Circle.Circle. His plays and dramatic theory are central to the study of modern theatre.