Brecht Bertolt Brecht 
Threepenny Opera 

This Student Edition of Brecht’s satire on the capitalist society of the Weimar Republic features an extensiveintroduction and commentary that includes a plot summary, discussion ofthe context, themes, characters, style and language as well asquestions for further study and notes on words and phrases in the text.It is the perfect edition for students of theatre and literature.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 avicious 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’sunforgettable music – one of the earliest and most successful attemptsto introduce jazz to the theatre – it became a popular hit throughoutthe western world. The text is presented in the trusted translation by Ralph Manheim and John Willett.