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Beggars, whores, and thieves
SFA stages Brecht's knife-edged Threepenny Opera at BU Theatre

By Hope Green

To Daniel Zaitchik, "Mac the Knife" once was just an infectious jazz-pop tune from an earlier generation. Maybe he'd heard the 1959 Bobby Darin hit, or the Louis Armstrong version, or perhaps it was Frank Sinatra's; he doesn't recall. "When I used to hear it I'd hum along," says the School for the Arts theater major. "I never thought about what it meant."

	SFA seniors Aubyn Philabaum and Daniel Zaitchik have had to leave their middle-class sensibilities behind in rehearsing for their roles as Jenny, a prostitute, and Macheath, London's worst criminal. Photo by Sarah Zenewicz

But when Zaitchik (SFA'02) began studying for the role of Macheath, the villain in The Threepenny Opera, the dark lyrics of the show's signature song by Kurt Weill took on new meaning. Mac is a serial killer, a pimp, and the leader of a gang of thieves, and he brutalizes the women who love him.
The contrast between Weill's swinging melodies and playwright Bertolt Brecht's biting political and social commentary has made the show a crowd-pleaser ever since it premiered in Berlin in 1928.

"A lot of musicals are spectacular or sentimental, and you admire the pretty voices," Zaitchik says. "This is a different kind of story altogether."
The Threepenny Opera opens on Wednesday, December 12, for a five-day run at the Boston University Theatre on Huntington Avenue. A fresh interpretation of the original work, which was set in Victorian England, this version takes place in London in the year 2010, at the time of the coronation of King William V.

"This is a portrait of an urban underworld," says director Scott Edmiston, an SFA assistant professor and artistic associate at the Huntington Theatre Company. "There are different camps within it -- beggars, thieves, and prostitutes -- all forming alliances for power and trying to see who can dominate the other. It's all about survival, and in some ways it's a metaphor for capitalism."

In designing the costumes, Sarah Aldridge (SFA'02) had to predict what fashions would look like in nine years. "She took elements of contemporary fashion and pushed them into new extremes, into bolder colors and textures," Edmiston says. "Almost everyone in the cast wears either vinyl or leather. It's not quite like science fiction; we're not that far into the future, but we're moving out of natural textures into a kind of very hard, stylish, bold look."

Speak-song
This is SFA's first mainstage musical in several years, but the undergraduates are in capable hands: Allison Voth, an SFA assistant professor and principal coach at the Opera Institute, is guiding them through solo and choral numbers in the nuanced Weill score.

The composer's style is sprech gesang, where lines are alternately sung and spoken.

"It comes from a cabaret sensibility," Voth explains. "It's perfect for young actors who aren't singers, but it can be very difficult technically to switch from one to the other, so it's not as easy as it sounds. But they were so hungry to get it right. They have an extraordinarily deep and devoted connection to the text, and that connection brings out remarkable things in their voices.

"I was quite relentless with them," she says, "because I expect them to have the same high standards that I have with my people in the opera division. And they really rose to the occasion."

Aubyn Philabaum (SFA'02) welcomes the chance to work with Voth. She has a leading role as Jenny, a prostitute who once lived with Mac. In the first act they dance the tango as she reminisces about old times -- singing of how he beat her and murdered their baby.

"What's been really challenging for me," Philabaum says, "is that
I have to sing all these horrible things, but the music will sound really melodic and pretty, and I might be directed to keep a smile on my face. It's a difficult juxtaposition, because where I might feel pain, these characters are used to it."

Earlier in the semester, Philabaum appeared opposite Zaitchik in Blood Wedding. It was a pairing similar to their current roles: he was Leonardo and she played his wife, whom he treated horribly and left for another woman. "We're always playing people in sick relationships of some sort or another," Zaitchik laughs.

His challenge is to take the persona of Mac beyond that of a cartoon villain.
"To play a psychopath you have to forget your preconceptions of the character and really treat him as you would any other role," he says. "He's like Hannibal Lecter -- someone who's suave and charming and entertaining, but you know he could burst at any time. He's the protagonist and the antagonist, in a way. I have to be threatening as well as somehow draw empathy from the audience, because you can't play this character to be hated. As Mac I have to believe that all my morals and my credo are true; I have to think that my actions are justified and my violence and rage and sexual antagonisms are correct."

Urban edge
Brecht was a young Bohemian in the 1920s who hoped to use theater as a forum for his leftist ideals. The Threepenny Opera emerged from his experiences in Weimar Germany between the first and second world wars.
"One of the things that attracted me to this play for BU," Edmiston says, "is that it was written by two young artists in their 20s reacting to society and trying to capture something essential about the urban experience, just like Hair in the 1960s and Rent in the '90s. These musicals reflected their generation. That was very much the case with The Threepenny Opera in the 1920s. It felt like this was a new young energy, a new voice, a piece of musical theater that captured something essential of its time. It's 80 years later, but I thought the students would still be able to tap into that spirit of the piece."

While traditional directors used realistic costumes and elaborate sets, Brecht kept his stages nearly bare and constantly reminded audiences that they were attending a theatrical performance. His minimalist approach had a major influence on 20th-century theater.

"He also didn't want you to engage emotionally with the characters, which was a really shocking notion," Edmiston says. "From Greek times on, audiences were supposed to identify with the characters, but Brecht wanted to engage them intellectually and motivate them to action rather than lull them into a passive emotional state.

"But when you're watching The Threepenny Opera, I don't think you'll feel it's a political statement. It's enormously entertaining, and in part that was a great frustration for Brecht. His ideals were very noble, but quite frankly, people go to the theater to be entertained. That doesn't mean entertainment has to be mindless or innocuous. It can also be smart and thought-provoking."

The Threepenny Opera will be staged at the Boston University Theatre, 264 Huntington Ave., on December 12 and 13 at 7:30 p.m., December 14 and 15 at 8 p.m., and December 16 at 2 p.m. For tickets, call the theater box office at 617-266-0800. One complimentary ticket per BU student ID is available for the Wednesday and Thursday performances.

7 December 2001
Boston University
Office of University Relations