BEGGAR’S OPERA

Since its 1928 premiere in Berlin, Bertolt Brecht’s classic, The Threepenny Opera, has permeated popular culture in numerous ways. Frank Sinatra, Louis Armstrong, Tom Waits and Pet Shop Boys have performed some of its most famous songs (e.g. “Mack the Knife”), and the play has spawned film and radio adaptations worldwide. This week, actor Imaad Shah—the son of actor Naseeruddin Shah makes his directorial debut with an Indian stage production featuring a host of notable thespians. Dubbed “an opera of the beggars”, the socialist critique of capitalism will no doubt resonate with audiences here. Set in a poor area of London, it features ‘fake’ beggars, thieves and prostitutes and hinges on the Peachums’ struggle to regain their daughter Polly after she makes an undesirable love marriage with the bandit Macheath. Shah learnt about the play when he heard the songs as a teenager. “I was blown away,” the 30-year-old says.

“Their harmonic structure was beautiful. As I started researching the lyrics and their different variations and translations over the years, I discovered the play. It struck a chord with me.”

Shah’s production draws on punk rock, cabaret and jazz choreography. “We have added film noir elements of German expressionism and interpreted the original score in our own way,” he says. The Threepenny Opera will premiere on November 10, 7:30 pm, at St Andrews Auditorium, Bandra, followed by shows on November 11 at the same venue and December 9 -10 at Jamshed Bhabha Theatre, National Centre for the Performing Arts.