The University of Notre Dame’s Department of Film, Television and Theatre (FTT) will present Bertolt Brecht and Kurt Weill’s “The Threepenny Opera” April 17 to 22 (Tuesday to Sunday) in the Decio Mainstage Theatre of Notre Dame’s Marie P. DeBartolo Center for the Performing Arts.
Admission is $12 for the general public, $10 for senior citizens and $8 for students. Performances are at 7:30p.m. April 17 to 21 and at 2:30p.m. April 22. Tickets and more information are available at the performing arts center box office or by calling 574-631-2800 or at http://performingarts.nd.edu/index.php?page=detail&event=387 .
First performed in Berlin in 1928, this revolutionary piece of musical theater was adapted from English dramatist John Gay’s 18th century piece, “The Beggar’s Opera.” A dark satire of “respectable” society, it initially was designed to rouse theatergoers into political awareness and action.
When Jonathan Peachum’s daughter, Polly, marries the town’s notorious criminal, Mack the Knife, Peachum resolves to have Mack imprisoned once and for all — a task that is enormously complicated by Mack’s longstanding friendship with the town’s local sheriff. In their attempt to trap Mack, Peachum and his wife develop a series of seedy, faulty strategies that ultimately rely on an abundance of betrayals.
*Contact: * Chris Sopczynski, FTT outreach specialist, 574-631-0457 or csopczyn@nd.edu
Originally published by at newsinfo.nd.edu on April 10, 2007.