Polly Peachum is in love. The universally feared king of crime, Macheath, known as Mack the Knife, has conquered her heart. They marry in secret – in a stable. The only trouble is that Polly’s father is none other than the businessman Jonathan Peachum, who capitalises on misery by sending healthy people onto the streets disguised as crippled beggars. He intends to bring Mack the Knife to the gallows for his deeds and thus wrest his daughter from her ill-fated relationship. However, he has not reckoned with Tiger Brown: the corrupt chief of police is Mack’s friend, and helps him to escape. But as everything can be bought with money and Mrs Peachum knows Mack’s favourite haunts, Polly has to try to turn the tables.
Brecht attained worldwide fame with his “Threepenny Opera” and Kurt Weill’s music, at the same time creating a new form of theatre for the stage. In the piece, he exposes the double standards of both bourgeois society and the criminal underworld, with its desire for respectability and prosperity. Both are based on the cold logic of money and are governed by the profits of capital.
