Review: Threepenny Opera

Poppy Goad reviews Threepenny Opera, following a recent trip by pupils in Years 11 and 12.

Threepenny Opera; a forced paradox between satirical violence amidst the deprivation of poverty and a good musical of epic high notes and emotional monologues. In an effort to portray the inner values of poverty and establish the grey area of right and wrong, the Rufus Norris production draws more likeness to a violently coloured cartoon or a bashed-up Pierrot show. 

Although, with its flaws, Threepenny Opera still manages to create a world of brutality, passion, crime, violence and love all mixed in with a cruel comic irony to drive you insane. A Brechtian production through and through, it not only questioned morals but downright drowned them for an ending that left the audience frozen for more than the curtain fall. 

With the fourth wall shattered in pieces as the actors openly announced the interval and scene changes, the production of Threepenny Opera, with all its madness, was able to encompass the social division and hidden criminal activity of Victorian London that certainly left Year 11 and 12 drama students rethinking the whole play in order to make sense of the brilliant insanity they had just witnessed.