THE THREEPENNY OPERA. To 15 February.

Tour

THE THREEPENNY OPERA
by Bertolt Brecht and Kurt Weill Translated by Jeremy Sams and Anthony Meech

National Theatre on tour
Runs 3hr One interval
Review Timothy Ramsden 22 January 2003 at Royal Theatre Northampton To 25 January (run sold out)

A bold, contemporary production which stabs the 'Opera's' savagery in yer face. The Threepenny Opera's operatic only in that its plot's a mix of the inchoate and trite. Despite Brecht's incipient Marxism it has more to do with the younger playwright's rebel rage. The force of Tim Baker's production lies in the recognition of this.

The basic set of mobile doors look as if they're from a builder's skip (very likely, given the way they kept swinging open unannounced). Wheeled around to create various scenes as actors emerge and disappear, change character and costume they generally add to the production's aptly improvisatory feel.

We first see the cast in the foyer, begging away on Equity minimum. Fair enough: the begging's all fake here. Brecht's piece may make you want to overthrow society (as opposed to building a new one). It won't encourage you to give money to a street mendicant - for the opposite effect, try Dickens.

Actors double as instrumentalists, in a style familiar since the eighties Updatings add pungency: Mack and Jackie Brown's army days were no longer Indian, but Middle-Eastern; there's a wickedly apt reference to the collapsed trial of Princess Diana's butler. The mood carries through in the performances, with actors skilled on brass instruments: not a soft string in sight.

Baker's stage choreography's wildly inventive: the first two 'Threepenny Finales' (no longer finales given the single interval, making for some kind of alienation) are most powerful for their movement.

Yet there are fine examples of Brechtian singing: untrained voices with rough edges, following the mix of jagged angularity and sly sinuousness of Weill's wonderful score: far from the bloodless declamation often heard in British Brecht. Michael Shaeffer's whole-hearted yet ironic salvation aria's a fine example of comic distancing. You admire the effort, while seeing what's being mocked.

There are unevennesses: some singing and acting is simply underpowered. Styles jar. Mrs and Miss Peachum give all-out cabaret performances, while there's a deliberate restraint to David Rubin's Mr P. But Baker has the measure of this notoriously slippery piece, something clear when the ensemble gymnastics go on hold for the likes of Jenny's 'Solomon Song': static yet still gripping.

Filch/Smith: Christopher Dickins
Brown: James Lailey
Polly Peachum: Natasha Lewis
Jenny: Elizabeth Marsh
Lucy/Constable: Lois Naylor
Mr Peachum/Reverend: David Rubin
Macheath: Michael Shaeffer
Mrs Peachum: Harvey Virdi
Ensemble: Douglas Whyte
Director: Tim Baker
Designer: Mark Bailey
Lighting: Nick Beadle
Associate Lighting: Flick Ansell
Sound: Neil Alexander
Musical Supervisor: Steven Edis
Music Director: Douglas Whyte
Movement diretor: Francesca Jaynes

Tour:
Hall for Cornwall Truro 28 January-1 February
Christ's hospital Horsham 4-5 February
Cottesloe Theatre London 8-15 F

2003-01-23 11:07:11