Three Penny Opera Essay

Words: 908
Pages: 4

"It is clear that the dramatists desire to elicit a particular response from their audience has governed the way in which they have shaped the structure of the play" (Derek Chaverley)
With reference to your text identify what response your play write is aiming to elicit and how you as a director would realise this in performance.

As a director we would identify what response The ThreePenny Opera is aiming to elicit and how we would realise this in the performance.

The ThreePenny Opera is one of Bertolt Brecht most successful plays with the major social issue of class, power and who controls wealth. A conflict between Mr. Peachum- a man who owns all of London's beggars and Macheath- who is in charge of all of London's thieves. Polly
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It can also help set the setting and show the proxemics of each character.

During the performance all of these techniques will be used in order to create the alienation effect. I would have to consider the production elements affected by the space within which it is to be stagged. In this case the stage would be at the Mandurah Performing Arts Centre. The stage would be set so it would be easy to change scenes; therefore there wouldn't be much set or props on stage, but just enough to help the audience distinguish the setting. Signs will be lowered or projected on stage as well as stage directions. When actors are not acting them would either be sitting on the edge of the stage or standing on the far left or right of the stage holding up signs that are needed. At one point one of the characters Lucy is pregnant; to show her pregnancy I would just have a sign on her stomach stating that she is pregnant. All of this will help alienate the play.

All of these techniques help present the concept of class, power and wealth. Karl Marx, a German philosopher who was often called the father of communism was a man who helped inspire Brecht with his theories and works. Marx would argue that "every problem in the world is brought on by power, class and money. This is what I as the director would like to put across to the audience so they can be inspired to change society. As Brecht hoped to communicate that the audience's reality was in fact a construction that