Countdown

Exclusive offer - buy any three playtexts and receive 25% off the fourth!*

*Discount automatically applied at checkout.

The Threepenny Opera Playtext

Regular price
£10.99
Sale price
£10.99
Regular price
Sold out
Unit price
per 

Author: Brecht, Bertolt

Format: Paperback / softback

Pages: 144

Publication date:

Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing PLC

For plays the EU representative is usually the publisher or authorised agent. Contact details for EU representatives are provided within the play or its packaging. For most titles, this information is provided on the imprint page of the play.

If you have any questions regarding product safety or you need assistance in contacting the authorised EU representative for a book or play you have purchased, please contact us.

Details

by Bertolt Brecht; John Willett; Ralph Manheim

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.

Educational discounts

Are you a teacher or do you work in education? We offer discounts for educational orders.

  • 10% off orders over £100
  • 15% off orders over £250

Please contact us to find out more.*

*You need to work in education to validate the discount. We recommend emailing us from your work email address.