Three Penny Opera

“It is clear that the dramatists desire to elicit a particular response from their audience has governed the way in which they have shaped the structure of the play” (Derek Chaverley)

With reference to your text identify what response your play write is aiming to elicit and how you as a director would realise this in performance.

As a director we would identify what response The ThreePenny Opera is aiming to elicit and how we would realise this in the performance.

The ThreePenny Opera is one of Bertolt Brecht most successful plays with the major social issue of class, power and who controls wealth. A conflict between Mr. Peachum- a man who owns all of London’s beggars and Macheath- who is in charge of all of London’s thieves. Polly Peachum (Mr. Peachums daughter) falls in love with Macheath (also known as Mac the Knife). Mac the Knife is seen as stealing her from Peachum, there is no emotional conflict where Peachum is upset about losing Polly, but rather a social issue. It is an invasion on Peachums status in London. The theft of Polly causes Peachum to openly declare war on Mac the Knife to regain his reputation.

This play is a satire on the bourgeois capitalist society of the Weimar Republic of which was a period of political freedom and cultural creativity, where people were controlled by class and wealth. Both of which were perished by Hitler.

As a director in order to elicit this to the audience I would undertake Brecht’s important techniques and theories. One of Brecht’s most influential theories in Epic theatre was that in a play, it should not cause the audience to emotionally identify with the action before them but should instead provoke rational self reflection and a critical view of the actions on stage. Brecht wanted to distance the audience from the characters so they could leave his play with the desire to change society.

In order to do this Brecht employed the use of techniques that reminded the audience that the play is a representation of reality and not reality itself. A technique of the term ‘Verfremdungseffekt’ also known as the alienation effect this techniques helps distance the audience from the characters. This well know theory includes such actions as direct address to the audience,