by Archie Whyld
What do German theatre administrators eat within the morning? Why, Brechtfast, after all. Early on in Polly (The Heartbreak Opera), the same, and admittedly higher, Brechtfast joke was subtly slipped in, in a second of metatheatrical gorgeousness, and so, being a lover of all issues Brecht, I believed – that is for me.
A collaboration between Marie Hamilton and Sharp Teeth Theatre, Polly (The Heartbreak Opera), directed by Stephanie Kempson, updates John Gay’s 18th Century Polly, the sequel to his The Beggars Opera, relocating Polly Peachum to the Caribbean the place Macheath is now a pirate. Following the tragic heroine, Polly Peachum, looking for her beloved Macheath, we start at a doomed wedding ceremony, find yourself on ship after which within the Caribbean. The comedic parodying is interspersed with songs which take us on, at instances, sudden journeys, not least with a hauntingly darkish and exquisite quantity about how love causes such horrible ache.
I’m extra acquainted with Brecht’s The Threepenny Opera, his reimagining of The Beggar’s Opera – or maybe we must always say Elisabeth Hauptman’s Threepenny Opera, as she translated the unique and urged it to Brecht, who then went on to say that he himself had translated it. And so the feminine reclamation of this textual content makes excellent sense, with its fierce and hilarious take down of males in energy, colonial wrongs and males like Macheath with small penis syndrome, however judging by the massive phallus packed into his biking shorts, he needn’t fear.
Marie Hamilton, who so brilliantly performed Captain Macheath with each large phallus and an actual 8-month pregnant stomach, was such a posh parody I believed my male mind may evaporate. Theatre is at its greatest when it’s troublesome to compute and there’s simply a lot happening: layers, contradictions and paradoxes that you just’re simply left pondering, ‘I believe this moment to be very, very good’. This was such a second.
The tracksuited, Boris-upped parodies had been fantastically supported and contrasted by Madeleine Shann’s The Poet – a narrator, an Emcee of types – whose sardonic, understated commentary belied a seething rage, which we felt in its full drive with the ultimate music, “The Solidarity Song”.
Polly (The Heartbreak Opera) excursions by means of 16 May.
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