Opera review: The Threepenny Opera, Her Majesty’s Theatre, Adelaide Festival

Internationally acclaimed opera director Barrie Kosky is well-known to Adelaide Festival audiences. He made a name for himself as the controversial director of the 1996 Adelaide Festival and has returned since with Saul in 2017, The Magic Flute in 2019 and The Golden Cockerel in 2022. Now he’s back with the Berliner Ensemble’s production of The Threepenny Opera, a classic work written by Bertolt Brecht and Elisabeth Hauptmann with music by Kurt Weill, first staged in Berlin in 1928.

It was both a success and a scandal then, not as an opera (which it’s not in any classical sense), but as a daring piece of music theatre and a scathing political polemic. By 1933 there were 133 productions on stages around the world.

Although the piece was originally set on the streets of Victorian London, Kosky has ramped up the Berlin cabaret aesthetic and set it in a less defined place and time. The show opens with a shimmering floor-to-ceiling silver tinsel curtain as a disembodied painted face pops through to sing the jazz standard ‘Mack the Knife’.

From here it’s ostensibly the story of Macheath, legendary lover and dangerous criminal. As the curtain rises, we see the main set, a towering climbing frame that looks like the demonic love child of an IKEA bookshelf and an Escher painting. And, yes, it’s clearly representative of heaven and earth, those in the gutter and those in the stars, and the struggle to survive, but ultimately it’s just a distraction as the actors climb awkwardly up and down, especially for those wearing towering high heels.

I can only imagine the bumps and bruises they must have endured in rehearsals! Adelaide Festival Director Ruth Mackenzie came on stage at the start of the opening night performance to explain that there had been problems all day with the hydraulics on set, so perhaps it was supposed to move and morph more than it did.

The cast here were uniformly excellent. They did their best to move around the awkward set and create meaningful characters, albeit in a love story rather than the original social satire. Gabriel Schneider was superb as Macheath, oozing both charm and villainy in equal measure and Cynthia Micas was captivating as Polly Peachum.

Polly’s parents Jonathan and Celia were presented with flair by Tilo Nest, easily the best singer on stage, and Constanze Becker who brought strength and empathy to her character. Of course there was a bit of cabaret gender swapping with Kathrin Wehlisch having fun as the police chief Tiger Brown. The brilliant musicians, under the tight direction of pianist Adam Benzwi, were placed almost at stage level, enabling them to play along with the actors. This device worked well and added to the cabaret feel.

The Threepenny Opera was sung in German with the English surtitles on screens at the side of the stage. Unfortunately, there was so much dialogue going on that much of it became lost in translation, literally and figuratively. It was impossible to keep up with what was written on the screens; even trying meant you missed the action on stage. (And should I even mention the spelling mistakes?)

And there were sound problems, all manner of technical difficulties on and off stage, and missed cues – not what you expect from such a high-profile (and highly priced) production. While Adelaide was its Australian premiere, it has played in Edinburgh and first opened in August 2021, so there has been plenty of time to get it right. And, again, these things were just a distraction.

Read: Exhibition review: Yucky, Adelaide Contemporary Experimental

Barrie Kosky has reimagined Brecht’s searing satire and rage against capitalism as a modern day music theatre love story. The Threepenny Opera certainly had its moments, but failed to live up to its promise.

The Threepenny Opera
Her Majesty’s Theatre
Based on John Gay’s The Beggar’s Opera 
By Bertolt Brecht (text) and Kurt Weill (music)
In collaboration with Elisabeth Hauptmann

Director: Barrie Kosky 
Musical Director: Adam Benzwi 
Stage Design: Rebecca Ringst 
Costumes: Dinah Ehm 
Lighting: Ulrich Eh 
Sound Design: Holger Schwank 
Dramaturgy: Sibylle Baschung 
Assistant Director: Leonie Rebentisch 
Assistant Musical Directors: Levi Hammer and Daniel Busch 
Assistant Stage Designers: Annett Hunger and Janina Kuhlmann 
Assistant Costume Designer: Svenja Niehaus
Cast: Tilo Nest, Constanze Becker, Cynthia Micas, Gabriel Schneider, Kathrin Wehlisch, Laura Balzer, Bettina Hoppe, Julia Berger, Dennis Jankowiak, Julie Wolff, Nicky Wuchinger, Josefin Platt, Heidrun Schug   
Orchestra: Adam Benzwi, James Scannell, Doris Decker, Nathan Plante, Otwin Zipp, Sebastian Trimolt, Ralf Templin

The Threepenny Opera was performed from 6-10 March 2024 as part of Adelaide Festival.