Bertolt Brecht’s timeless classic to be staged in Chennai
Jeevlin, the faculty coordinator of the play, tells DT Next that the director Regin selected this play because he wanted to convey a message to the people.
From the rehearsal.
CHENNAI: Carrying on the 110-year-old tradition of theatre, Women’s Christian College will be presenting the play, The Threepenny Opera. The play was initially written in German by Bertolt Brecht and then translated into English by Ralph Manheim and John Willett in 1993.
It has been adapted for modern audiences by the college play’s dramaturgy team together with the director, Regin Rose. Bertolt Brecht deliberately set the play in 1837, even though it premiered almost a hundred years later in 1928, post-World War I.
“Now being performed here a hundred years later, many of the themes such as poverty, corruption, discrimination, and classism remain relevant. Instead of focusing on the war itself, he showed how the misfits and the lower classes were left helpless and disillusioned by its repercussions.”
Jeevlin, the faculty coordinator of the play, tells DT Next that the director Regin selected this play because he wanted to convey a message to the people. “This play will make the audience think about how the situation was in a particular period. By putting the spotlight on the underworld of London at this time, the writer Bertolt exposed the inherent hierarchy that existed even within the chaotic world of crime, which was only a microcosm of the political state of the nation at large,” says Jeevlin.
The Threepenny Opera stands out in his body of work mainly due to its very satirical and specific portrayal of a setting and characters to convey universal themes. But it is done through an enjoyable theatrical form that contains an engaging plot, humour, dance, and music that elicits the involvement of its audience.
“The play is one hour 40 minutes with 22 cast members, and we have a few musicians and instrumentalists,” adds the faculty.
Regin Rose is an acclaimed theatre director, actor, and acting trainer. A graduate of the National School of Drama, he has acted in several theatre productions and films. As the founder of the Medai theatre group, he has directed many renowned plays such as Agamemnon, Mother of 1084, and most recently WCC’s production of The Fiddler on the Roof. Jeevlin says that the director always looks at stories that carry a great message with satire.
The Threepenny Opera will be staged at the WCC Auditorium on the 14, 15, and 16 of September, from 6.30 pm onwards.