THE THREEPENNY OPERA at the Cockpit Theatre

★★★

“A promising opening, that isn’t quite sustained throughout.”

We walk into the ‘Factory of Plays’. A kind of warped bandstand sits centre stage, with mannequin torsos circling it; grotesque and absurdist, some attached to rope like an umbilical cord. Or a hangman’s noose. The front rows of the auditorium are littered with musical instruments. An accordion, trombone, trumpet, cello, clarinet. A banjo here, a Hawaiian guitar there. The space feels abandoned as though some frenetic activity has been interrupted. The truncated figures, like a troupe of mute Frankenstein’s creatures, waiting to be brought back to life. Enter two inventors, in white lab coats, followed by a cast of actor musicians in high-vis jackets.

This is the premise behind the OVO Theatre’s interpretation of the Bertolt Brecht and Kurt Weill ‘play with music’. Translated by Robert David MacDonald (dialogue) and Jeremy Sams (lyrics), it adopts many ‘Brechtian’ characteristics. There is no fourth wall whatsoever here as we witness the action being created in front of us. Characters step out of the narrative to talk to us. A phone is borrowed, a beer bottle grabbed and swigged from (oh, how far we have thankfully moved on from the specious sensitivities of the pandemic), scenes are interrupted by metallic tones and bizarre announcements. We are never quite sure where we are. There is something Orwellian. Dystopian. Yet grounded in present day politics. A Clockwork Orange meets Boys from the Blackstuff. A promising opening, that isn’t quite sustained throughout.

Macheath appears, chimera-like from within a cage to the strains of his signature tune. It is uncertain whether he is being created or born. He emerges savvy and streetwise, but with a menace that is too soft at the edges. Peter Watts is clearly enjoying the role, initially channelling Harold Steptoe but then allowing his natural charisma steers him into more dangerous territory. However, the sense of true danger is never quite realised in Adam Nichols’ staging. He allows the slapstick to overshadow nuance.

“Musically it is spot on”

Mark Carlisle’s Peachum has a gravitas as Macheath’s nemesis, aided by Annette Yeo’s feisty Mrs Peachum. Their tentative hold over the beggars of London is challenged when their daughter Polly (Emily Panes) marries Macheath. Panes dresses Polly in innocence – a veil that is easily torn by Macheath’s unscrupulous womanising, allowing her to reveal the dormant steeliness. Panes has one of the stronger singing voices. Although the cast comprises an all singing, all playing company, they don’t always meet the musical challenges. Harmonies and tuning are further loosened by conductor Lada Valešová constantly ducking and diving, like an itinerant beggar, around the playing space. Song introductions suffer from a slight delay while she locates the various musicians, and vice versa. This stop-start stodginess permeates much of the first act, and it is only after interval that the flow finds its true course.

Musically it is spot on, avoiding the pitfalls of some modern interpretations of jollifying the compositions. And Brecht’s intentions are duly honoured. The absurdity is in plain sight and the surrealism defies theatrical convention. But rather than neatly slotting into the narrative, frustratingly some choices are just a touch too bizarre and random, and we disengage as our understanding gets muddied. Nearly a hundred years ago when it opened in Berlin, the work was a radical critique of the capitalist world. It is indeed just as relevant today, and doesn’t necessarily need modern anachronisms, especially ones as clumsy as slipping in references to William and Kate into the libretto, or offhand allusions to Boris Johnson. The themes are more universal than that and Brecht and Weill deserve more respect.

What cannot be avoided is the original disjointed ending, which this production does manage to pull off cohesively and with an emotional commitment that makes sense of the satire. This is largely due to Watts’ performance, his rendition of ‘Call from the Grave’ one of the highlights. Society hasn’t really changed much since “The Threepenny Opera” first premiered. The moral messages are just as raw. OVO’s interpretation retains that rawness – and the genuine grit, even if it doesn’t always grip.

THE THREEPENNY OPERA at the Cockpit Theatre

Reviewed on 21st September 2023

by Jonathan Evans

Photography by Elliott Franks

Previously reviewed at this venue:

My Body Is Not Your Country | ★★★ | August 2023

End Of The World Fm | ★★★ | August 2023

Love Goddess, The Rita Hayworth Musical | ★★ | November 2022

999 | ★★★ | November 2022

The Return | ★★★ | November 2022

L’Egisto | ★★★ | June 2021

The Threepenny Opera

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★★★

“Bonito is an intense, captivating performer”

My Body is Not Your Country is a piece that exists on the intersection between theatre and performance art. There are multi-media elements and there’s movement, song and spoken word. There are some deeply striking visuals, and phrasing. Both the poetic, lyrical monologues and the powerful physical images are, at times, both beautiful and evocative.

This one-woman show is produced and presented by Marta Bonito, in collaboration with Amanda Gatti and Laura Padilla. It explores the themes of home and belonging. It questions how to define home and weaves in different perspectives and stories of migration. Parts of it tell Bonito’s own story. But other voices, piped through into the auditorium, tell other women’s stories. Bonito switches between a microphone, and her own voice, which differentiates the stories, slightly. She brings two women on stage at the end, who are presumably the voiceovers we hear throughout. They are clearly deeply moved by the performance, and the strength of their emotion is powerful.

Bonito is an intense, captivating performer. She puts her entire heart, soul and body into it. It is wonderfully performed, and she is energetic, bold and confident in the space. There is a moment where she sprints, mostly naked, in circles around the stage, while still monologuing, which is a deeply impressive feat. She does a bit of everything, and proves herself to be well-rounded and multi-talented.

The difficulty is that the piece is trying to do too much. It’s exploring so many themes, and so many stories, that the message, and the point, are lost. The narrative is deliberately muddled, mixing multiple women’s stories, and experiences – but it has a confusing effect. The piece’s fragmentary nature tries to echo the characters’ own fragmented senses of self and identity. But it makes the piece itself hard to follow. The stories, which should be centred in this narrative, become garbled and intertwined, which lessens their power. The voiceovers are also hard to hear, perhaps adding subtitles to the screen could allow a chance for the beauty of the language to be appreciated. It’s difficult to know what to focus on. The rolling film of the beach, the gyrating performer, wrapping herself in a thin tulle scarf, or the voiceover, telling the story of a fleeing woman. It’s a shame, because some moments are stunning, but the overall effect is overcomplicated.

The lighting design is simple, if a little underused. The team opt to use a set of battery powered mini lights on stage, rather than the overhead lights, which does not seem to add much, but is a fun addition to the set.

The set works well; chairs, scarves, books and boxes are strewn about. Bonito hops over books like lily-pads, she clambers on the boxes, contorting herself through them. A microphone in the corner creates a separate section where different stories can be explored. It creates worlds, characters and stories through beautiful imagery. It is a sadness that the piece itself is not more pared down, so it could also succeed in this.

Tag Archives: Cockpit Theatre

The Threepenny Opera

★★★

Cockpit Theatre

THE THREEPENNY OPERA at the Cockpit Theatre

★★★

“A promising opening, that isn’t quite sustained throughout.”

“Musically it is spot on”

THE THREEPENNY OPERA at the Cockpit Theatre

Reviewed on 21st September 2023

by Jonathan Evans

Photography by Elliott Franks