Sex, Drunks & Punk-Rock Roll Through a Raucous Threepenny Opera
By Mike Ward
Tuesday, December 8, 2009
SF Bay Times

“Who is the greater criminal? The man who robs a bank, or the man who founds one?” asks the timeless 1928 Brecht/Weill epic-theatre-piece, The Threepenny Opera. And Shotgun Players’ must-see, darkly-brilliant and currently-running production, staged with raw, seductive power by Susannah Martin, answers the question. A message scrawled on the columns of the abandoned bank set (designed by Nina Ball) provides a clue: “Hands are here 2 make things -- Hands are here 2 break things.”

Womanizing anti-hero Macheath (aka Mac the Knife) marries the seemingly-pristine Polly Peachum. Her parents, the Peachums, are in the industry of pinching panhandler profits, and with the Queen’s Jubilee coming up, they’ll allow nothing to interfere with their cash-cow week. Other key players include Lucy, the spoiled tarty daughter of Mac’s army buddy Tiger Brown, and Jenny, the leader of a pack of truly frightening prostitutes.

The onstage band, The Weillators [sounds like “violators”], kick ass. This rag-tag fleet of musicians pump sweaty savagery into much of the score. The overture is banged out with punk-gusto, melding into an aggressive, gritty vocal of the play’s most famous tune, “The Ballad of Mac the Knife.” The song describes our heroic-villain Macheath, assayed by Jeff Wood with a winning combo of early Elvis Costello and a seductive twist of A Clockwork Orange.

Mr. Peachum – nimbly-played and beautifully-baritoned by Dave Garrett – appears as a ‘70s Texas-version of evangelist Rick Warner with a ten-gallon hat full of mis-spouted bible verses, and his wife (Bekka Fink) drinks. Lots. Kelsey Ventner portrays Polly Peachum with aplomb. Her “Pirate Jenny” song is unsettlingly sexy. Her comic turn in “Jealousy Duet,” sung with a quirky-but-bad-girl Rebecca Pinigree (nailing the role of Lucy Brown) is the punk equivalent of a Carol Burnett/Lucille Ball sketch-gone-rightfully-wrong. And Ventner’s “Barbarian Song” is the most remarkable rendition ever of this coming-of-age song.

And It just gets better. Beth Wilmurt as Jenny delivers a simple, stripped-down reprise of “Mac the Knife” that is chilled terror, her straightforward virtuosity amplifying the lyrics. She and Wood’s Macheath menacingly stalk each other in “Pimp’s Tango” as flashes of violence mix with raw sexuality in choreographer Erika Chong Schuch’s musical staging. Schuch takes seething figures from the shadowy-sidelines (of lighting designer Allen Wilner’s evocative lightscapes) to paralyzed observers in the deadly-still stand-off between Mac and Jenny. The elegantly-stripped-down effect of her work excels. Danny Wolohan as Tiger Brown deftly morphs from slimy co-conspirator to an energetically-nervous, ineffectual authoritarian losing his grip. And particular mention goes to ensemble member El Beh whose every moment is fully committed, each character clearly drawn in the desperate tones of a punk-world gone mad.

The Threepenny Opera itself tells us it’s "an opera for beggars," though this satire of traditional opera created a new kind of musical theater for all. The facile translation by Jeremy Sams and Robert McDonald, along with Brecht’s 1929 Threepenny Novel, allows director Martin to crack open the text and extract parallels to today. Where others shoe-horn in concepts based on trend, Martin slyly slides in her chosen time-period and punk aesthetic with a custom fit that’s as flattering as costumer Mark Koss’s period and character-appropriate garments.

This production of The Threepenny Opera is worth every cent, and a whole lot more. It’s simply one of the best theatre productions of the year. And Shotgun Players home, the Ashby Stage, is just across the street from the Ashby BART station. Catch it!

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