Brecht’s ‘epic theater’ shines through in almost every facet of Chicago’s Hypocrites Theater’s gritty depiction of the Threepenny Opera at the Steppenwolf Garage Theater. Director Sean Graney’s Threepenny world, as lively and in your face as it was dark and laced with political jibes, is a place where each has to out-con and out-manipulate others to get ahead. If one is willing to walk over his fellow man, desires can be fulfilled with very little consequence. There is no hero—no character the audience can root for, but there is plenty for the audience to think about.
Set in Soho London, England just before the coronation of Queen Victoria, Macheath, aka Mac the Knife (Gregory Hardigan), notorious scoundrel and bandit, hooks up with the wrong woman—Polly Peachum (Jennifer Coombs). Polly’s parents, Mr. and Mrs. Peachum (Michael Pacas and Sara Sevigny) run the local gang of trained, for profit beggars. The Peachums disapprove of Polly’s marriage to Mac and scheme to have him jailed and executed. They contend with the smarmy police commissioner Tiger Brown (Robert McClean), also Mac’s old army buddy who covers up all of Mac’s crimes for a percentage of Mac’s take.
But JJ Peachum threatens Brown to unleash his army of beggars at the Queen’s coronation if Mac is not arrested, and Mrs. Peachum bribes the whores that Mac frequents to turn him in to the police. After being jailed, escaping, and jailed for a second time, Mac is scheduled to be executed, a fate which Mac’s long line of whores, wives, and cronies cannot stop. But someone can—the ending is quite unexpected and frustrating—as it should be.
The space is an old parking garage converted into a theater. The set consists of two large jelly-bean shaped platforms on either side of the theater, each surrounded by audience chairs. The platforms are made of simple plywood with two-by-four supports exposed beneath them. The actors use the entire room as the theater and jump up onto and off of the platforms throughout the performance. Two slides are at opposite sides of the room. Over the platforms hang bunches of shoes (as victims fall to the floor, their shoes are added to the collection). The walls are dark and covered with graffiti, like an old abandoned building.
The piano sits in the center of the room so that the music is at the center of everything. The opening number engages with a booming piano (played expertly by Timothy Splain) and a street singer (Alex Balestrieri) rendering ‘The Ballad of Mac the Knife.’ The cast, a highly energetic, athletic group, moves with ease and fluidity around the room while bodies fall here and there—victims of Mac the Knife.
Gregory Hardigan’s portrayal of a charming yet villainous Mac the Knife is right on the money. He plays Mac with an intensity and darkness—this Mac would lie, cheat, or steal anything from anybody without conscience. Hardigan has a nice voice, but at mellow moments, it sometimes blends into the background noise.
Jennifer Coombs plays Polly Peachum with an edge that dares the audience to hate or pity her—depending upon the moment. Robert McClean is amusing at Tiger Brown, the pathetic Police Commissioner who has made it his life’s work to be Mac’s yes-man. There is a particularly humorous scene where he brings Mac a heart-shaped box of chocolates and calls him the “bees knees.” Sara Sevigny also does a great job portraying the determined, alcoholic mother of the mislead Polly, usually appearing with a bottle in her hand. Michael Pacas plays a formidable Mr. JJ Peachum with style, sarcasm and dry humor. Vanessa Greenway plays Jenny, the sad yet strong “most beloved whore” of Mac. She is fantastic—she shines in every scene. Greenway has the most beautiful singing voice of the cast, showcased in her German rendition of the “Solomon Song.”
Mac’s bad boys had great chemistry especially in the wedding scene where they boasted of their thievery while presenting their stolen wedding ‘gifts’ to the happy couple. The whores were quite an eyeful when they gather on the stairs to discuss their families.
The costumes seemed to be gathered from the local thrift shop. The whores were half-naked in dirty white unmatched outfits for the majority of the show. Joe Stakley, the male prostitute, dressed simply in green bikini underwear. Mac’s crooks donned outrageous costume jewelry and cheesy watches.
Unfortunately, the garage acoustics were not the best. Those sitting behind the piano complained that it was difficult to hear throughout the performance. But although the piano was loud, it was expressive and wonderful—Timothy Splain was phenomenal. The Kurt Weill’s original music was written to be played by an orchestra, yet Splain pulled it off brilliantly with two instruments. A friend commented after the second act, “Are you watching the piano player? You can tell what’s going on just by looking at the expression on his face.”
Brechtian-style, cardboard placards are displayed throughout the performance with a variety of amusing notations. One stuck on the piano read “You are about to see an opera for beggars. Since this opera was conceived with a splendor only a beggar could imagine, and since it had to be so cheap even a beggar could afford it, it is called the ‘Threepenny Opera.’”
The actors consistently break the fourth wall. Before the play begins, the actors roam around the room speaking to the audience members, explaining what’s going to happen. “There’s going to be wedding right over here and a stabbing right in front of where you are sitting,” one actor said. The characters interjected current events into the dialogue. JJ Peachum says on more than one occasion “this is just a play.”
Mrs. Peachum approaches the piano player and asks him to stop Polly the next time she passes him by. Near the end of the performance, JJ Peachum directly addresses the audience preaching about the play being ‘overtly political’ and mentions Brecht and Marxism. Most telling of all, though, Mac, responding to a question from one of his cronies, says, “I’m suspending my campaign due to the financial crisis.”
The ending is the epitome of Brechtian theater; in a seemingly nonsensical twist, the bad guy gets off the hook. I thought “what just happened?”
The evening makes you think, alright.
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