Festival Theatre
Five stars
Love and money are everything in Australian maverick Barrie Kosky’s audacious new look at Bertolt Brecht and Kurt Weill’s ‘play with songs’, drawn from Elisabeth Hauptmann’s translation of John Gay’s eighteenth century romp, The Beggar’s Opera. Almost a hundred years on from its 1928 premiere, Kosky’s Berliner Ensemble production breathes new life into the show, as he does away with Weimar style trappings and drapes it in an infinitely more modern looking if still decadent gloss.
Set in a poverty strapped world where appearances matter, Kosky opens proceedings in front of a full length silver curtain, where local gang boss Peachum holds court before Macheath and Peachum’s daughter Polly make their entrance. The revolt into style that follows resembles a 1980s Soho-set pop video dreamt up by an unholy alliance of Rainer Werner Fassbinder and Julian Temple.
Gabriel Schneider’s Macheath, aka Mack the Knife, is a big suited city boy spiv forever on the make or on the run. Cynthia Micas’ Polly sports a rah-rah skirt, similarly glammed up in her Dinah Ehm designed finery.As Macheath hams it up, at one point showering himself with glitter as he claims his narcissistic moment, there are frequent nods to the band as he and Polly flirt with the audience.
Polly sings Pirate Jenny as a nightclub turn aloft set designer Rebecca Ringst’s maze of podiums that house the ensemble like a team of off-duty go-go dancers. Later, as Polly’s love rival Lucy prepares to knock off her nemesis, the catfight that follows looks like a closing time scrap between besties outside a cocktail bar, with all the tears and tantrums involved before they make up.
All this is raucously soundtracked by musical director Adam Benzwi, who helms a storming eight-piece band who stay true to Weill’s ragged streetwise spirit. Schneider and Micas lead a glorious ensemble, which also includes Amelie Willberg as Lucy, and a keening Bettina Hoppe as Jenny.
Only at the end do the cast appear in more familiar Cabaret style black, as we see how those in power are let off for their crimes with little more than a caution in a world where love is still for sale in this mighty reinvention.
The Herald, August 21st 2023
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