The Threepenny Opera

“We’d be good instead of base, but this old world is not that kind of place.”

Almost a hundred years after it first shook Berlin, The Threepenny Opera still cuts like a knife through velvet. Born from the scandalous union of Bertolt Brecht’s razor-edged wit and Kurt Weill’s jazz-soaked melodies, it turns a society on the edge of collapsing into a circus of greed, lust, and survival—a mirror that reflects us today as it did 100 years ago.

The legendary Berliner Ensemble–which gave birth to the piece in 1928–brings director Barrie Kosky’s explosive version to Taipei Performing Arts Center. Brecht’s own theater meets Kosky’s mischievous imagination, creating a riotous world that glitters, seduces, and bites.

Enter Mack the Knife, a gentleman gangster with too much charm and too little mercy. When he falls for Polly, daughter of the beggar-king Peachum, love and business collide in a whirlwind of betrayal, music, and moral confusion. Weill’s score, blending cabaret, swing, and street song, pulses with the rhythm of a restless city. Familiar hits like “Mack the Knife” and “Pirate Jenny” sound both dangerously familiar and thrillingly new–tunes that make the feet dance while tapping into the burrows of the heart.

Kosky’s staging brims with theatrical sleight-of-hand: actors slide between irony and sincerity, breaking the fourth wall with a wink, a grin, or a scream. It is part cabaret, part sermon, part fever dream, a show that dares you to laugh at what you should probably cry about.

This 20th century classic arrives in Taipei not as a museum piece but as a living, laughing protest. It reminds us that every age has its Mack the Knife, every city its price for survival, and every audience its moment to ask: what would you sell to stay afloat?

BERLINER ENSEMBLE 
Founded in 1949 by Bertolt Brecht and Helene Weigel, the Berliner Ensemble is one of Europe’s most influential theater companies and a cornerstone of modern drama. From its home on Schiffbauerdamm Street, the site of the original 1928 premiere of The Threepenny Opera, the Ensemble has shaped generations of artists through its distinctive mix of social critique and theatrical innovation. Under artistic director Oliver Reese, it continues Brecht’s tradition of using the stage as a space for reflection and debate while reimagining classics for contemporary audiences. Collaborations with visionary directors such as Barrie Kosky and Frank Castorf have kept the company vital and unmistakably Berlin.

BARRIE KOSKY 
Barrie Kosky, born in Melbourne and based in Berlin, is renowned worldwide for his inventive approach to opera and music theatre. Since 2012 he has served as Intendant and Artistic Director of the Komische Oper Berlin, transforming it into one of Europe’s most dynamic houses and earning titles such as Director of the Year (Opernwelt, 2016). His productions—including The Magic Flute, The Nose, Fiddler on the Roof and The Threepenny Opera—combine visual boldness, musical precision and emotional clarity. A regular guest at the Bayreuth Festival and London’s Royal Opera House, Kosky has been praised for his ability to treat serious themes with lightness and humor, redefining what music theatre can be in the 21st century.