While the whole of London is preparing for the coronation, the bandit Macky the Knife marries Polly Pichem, the daughter of the leader of the city’s beggars. Upon learning of this, Mr. Pichem is furious and wants to hand the bandit over to the authorities. But it turns out that Mackie the Knife and the town sheriff are old friends… Written in 1928, Bertolt Brecht and Kurt Weill’s *The Threepenny Opera* became a cult classic and won the hearts of audiences around the world. In Russia, the play was first staged in 1930 on the stage of Alexander Tairov’s Chamber Theatre, where it was performed under the title *The Opera of the Beggars*. Evgeny Pisarev: «Working on ‘The Threepenny Opera’ is a long‑held dream of mine. Of course, it’s always scary to touch a dream, because fulfilling it is at the same time its death, but for many years I’ve been working on this material in detail and with great enthusiasm, and I don’t miss a single premiere anywhere in the world. The knowledge and impressions I’ve accumulated make me wonder what new thing I can bring to this story.» What helped me decide to stage the production was the fact that we found an actor with a character that was atypical for Mackie Knife — Maxim Matveev, with whom we understand each other well and have worked together more than once. On the stage of the Pushkin Theatre, «The Threepenny Opera» will be staged under the title «The Beggars’ Opera» — in 1930, Alexander Tairov, who introduced Brecht to the Russian public, gave his production that name. I like the paradox embedded in this title: after all, there are no truly impoverished characters among the play’s protagonists, yet all of them, sometimes without even realizing it, suffer from spiritual poverty.
Theater
