“Three Penny Opera” at The Palm, 12/19

09 Dec “Three Penny Opera” at The Palm, 12/19

SPARKy and Telluride’s The Palm present a rare Christmas treat Monday, December 19, starting at 6 p.m. at The Palm. The event is a screening of the National Theatre of Great Britain’s latest production of  “The Three Penny Opera” by Bertolt Bretcht. Dinner and wine will be served on the stage during an hour-long intermission.

Here is a link to a video of the director, Rufus Norris talking about the show. And an intro to the show.

Funds from this benefit will go towards future readings (in Spanish & English) of  “The Hispanic Women’s Project,” an original play by SPARKy founder Jennie Franks,  performed this past summer at the 10th annual Telluride Playwright’s Festival and written by Franks. 

For more information and dinner tickets, $75 (for screening and food) go here. (And scroll down to check out the menu for the evening.) Tickets for the simulcast screening alone can be purchased at the door for $15; $10 for students – and bring a picnic to eat in the foyer.

Scroll down for more about The Hispanic Women’s Project and ways to give.

Loved “The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time”?

But enough about the boy and the dog.

Enter the shark – in the form of Mack the Knife.

Yes, Mack is back in the new(ish) National Theatre of Great Britain’s production of Bertolt Brecht and Kurt Weill’s classic musical theatre piece, “The Three Penny Opera.” The adaptation is by Tony-winning playwright Simon Stephens – who also wrote “The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time.” This darkly comic, landmark twentieth-century musical is broadcast live from the stage of the National Theatre.

“The Three Penny Opera” represents a milestone in musical theatre. It is a modern-day opera, for and by beggars. Composer Kurt Weill (1900-1950) and playwright Bertolt Brecht (1898-1956) managed to transform the saccharine, old-fashioned opera into a sharp political satire, adding the sounds of 1920’s Berlin dance bands and cabaret. The most famous song in the show is ‘Mack the Knife.”

Both Weill and Brecht fled the Nazis during the war, where their work was banned for its critical, political content.

“‘The Three Penny Opera’ is one of the most produced musicals ever. It can be easily be described as the ‘Hamilton’ of its day, breaking ground with original style and content,” said Jennie Franks, founder and artistic director of SPARKy Productions and The Telluride Playwrights Festival. “This particular production is as fresh as it was when it was first produced, set in the London of today, where the inequality between the classes is highlighted.”

As the National Theatre’s website tell it, London’s East End scrubs up for the coronation, Mr. and Mrs. Peachum gear up for a bumper day in the beggary business. Keeping tight control of the city’s underground – and their daughter’s whereabouts.

With Olivier Award-winner Rory Kinnear (Hamlet, Othello, James Bond) as Macheath, alongside Rosalie Craig (As You Like It, My Family and other Animals) as Polly Peachum and Haydn Gwynne (The Windsors, Drop the Dead Donkey) as Mrs. Peachum.

Contains filthy language and immoral behavior.

“…as the first act picks up steam and that immortal score takes hold, the evening soars on a canny, foul-mouthed amalgam that couples German expressionism — Haydn Gwynne’s Mrs. Peachum is an Otto Dix study in scarlet — with a deeply modern inclusiveness that finds among the cast the disabled performer Jamie Beddard, who has cerebral palsy and lands arguably the most trenchant one-liner of the entire show.

“The distinguished supporting cast further includes Nick Holder’s Peachum, an ovoid figure of fear, and a bespectacled Rosalie Craig as his daughter Polly, one of the many intendeds, as it turns out, of Mr. Kinnear’s take-no-prisoners Macheath, who cuts as sharp as the knife that gives his character both a career and a name…,” wrote The New York Times.

More about The Hispanic Women’s Project:

The Hispanic Women’s Project (my review here) sparked a fundraising campaign to create  scholarships for young graduating Latinas so they can go on to attain a higher education. The SPARK Latina Scholarship Fund honors the women who tell their stories in the play.

Next week, on December 15, the Telluride Foundation sponsors its annual day of giving. Telluride Gives represents another chance to donate to the Latina scholarship fund and other worthy regional causes.

Menu for your evening with Mack the Knife:

Grilled citrus-garlic chicken with red onion, yellow peppers, red peppers, and mushrooms.

Grilled chili-rubbed flat iron steak with red onion, green and red peppers, and mushrooms.

Grilled vegetable skewers.

Zucchini, yellow squash, red onion, sweet potato and mushrooms.

Vegetable rice pilaf.

Southwest Waldorf Salad with apples and dried cherries.

Candied pecans with organic greens in a honey chili-lime dressing.