04 Sep 2023
Deborah Heath catches OVO’s spectacular production of the Brecht classic, wrapping up this year’s Roman Theatre Festival before going on tour until October 7.
When I headed to the Roman Theatre on Friday I felt a bit teary – this marked the final play I would see at this year’s festival. What an amazing programme it has been and worthy of a round-up in the next issue.
In terms of ‘The Threepenny Opera’ though, let’s start with a nod of respect to OVO for being brave enough to stage it. We know they have an outstanding knack of reimagining Shakespeare in exciting ways but to be so bold as to take on a Brecht play is another matter entirely!
For those of you unfamiliar with the ideology of theatre practitioner Bertolt Brecht, he was very against naturalist theatre, famously saying: “The audience hang up their brains with their hats.”
He wanted to use theatre to deliver a political message which the audience would then act on to bring about social change. To do this, he aimed to alienate them from the play itself using devices such as dressing the characters on stage or addressing the audience directly to break down the fourth wall.
On paper this might not sound like much fun and to quote directly from the play: “That’s not supposed to be nice – that was art!” Let me assure you though that OVO rose to the challenge and delivered a production that was both thought provoking and highly entertaining.
The set, designed by OVO co-founder Simon Nicholas, was a circular monkey bar structure placed in front of the scaffold bridge (which has been onstage for the entire festival.) During the action various things hung from the bars including actors and sometimes dismembered mannequins to represent an abattoir. In this production above every other I have seen in the festival, I felt that the entirety of this stage was used to best advantage and for this reason alone I would recommend getting a ticket.
The overall stage and costume design (Adrian Rees) was utilitarian with eye catching representative touches – just right for a Brechtian show. For example, hi-vis tutus showed who was playing a courtesan and in one case this was repositioned to represent pregnancy.
I must applaud Simon Nicholas for designing such a marvellous set structure whilst working within the restrictions of a heritage site – you can’t dig any foundations at the Roman Theatre and how this was engineered to safely support the cast I cannot begin to imagine!
Breaking down the fourth wall by addressing the audience is a theatrical device we are all used to. As children we see it in pantomime, in Shakespeare it might be used during a soliloquy, and in many of the productions in this festival it has been used to get the audience involved in the action in some way.
I particularly liked the early move in this play to get us on-side when the characters posed for a wedding photo, only to realise that no one has booked a photographer. Macheath asked a teenage audience member for their camera phone and took the photo which I show below – such a lovely souvenir for this GCSE drama student and what a great way to bring his studies to life.
Brechtian theatre is a challenge for actors because they are so used to immersing themselves totally in their character. Here they had to keep stepping in and out of role and portray an archetype yet still retain some truth – we don’t need to sympathise with them but we must believe in their plight.
This talented cast achieved this absolutely and sadly due to the large number of them I cannot mention everyone here. Many of them went one step further and showed they were great musicians too. A quick shout out to Faith Turner who has often proved herself a versatile actor, but in this production demonstrated the strength of her singing voice and dancing skills.
Annette Yeo and Emily Panes had beautifully clear and powerful voices and were the ideal vehicle for hearing Kurt Weill’s haunting music such as “Pirate Jenny.” It was a nice Brechtian touch to have musical director Lada Valesova onstage involved in the action of the play rather than skulking in an orchestra pit. She managed a marvellous team of actor musicians who played 21 instruments between them and had to quickly change between them and their acting roles. It was exhausting to watch!
Most people us know the jazz number “Mack the Knife” but perhaps it will be news to you that it is from this play. “Mack”, Macheath, gangster, played by Peter Watts simply commanded the stage from the moment he stepped into his costume (nice Brechtian device!) A brief mention to Ben Howarth who gave marvellously understated comic performances in various roles throughout the play.
To sum up, this production of ‘The Threepenny Opera’ is the pinnacle of OVO’s achievements in this year’s festival. Features of the play that might seem like set-backs to most of us were embraced with aplomb by this talented team. I wish them all the very best for their UK tour.
