Word: peachum
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...smaller shows gear up to start, the Loeb's immense and detailed Threepenny Opera has only one weekend left to run. After surviving the sudden incapacitation of John Langdon, cast as J.J. Peachum, with the masterful pinchhitting aid of Ernest Kerns, Threepenny arrives on the stage with, if not quite a unified impact, certainly enough brilliant elements to satisfy any viewer...
Captain Macheath (John Bellucci), known as Mac the Knife, holds sway over the criminal elements. He marries Peachum's daughter Polly (Daphne de Marneffe), without her parents' consent. Enraged, Peachum and his wife (Miriam Shmir) plot to have him hanged. Mrs. Peachum enlists the help of Mac's whores to trap him, one of whom, Low-Dive Jenny (Martha Hackett) once lived with him. Mr. Peachum bullies Tiger Brown (Christopher Randolph), the Sheriff of London and Mac's old army buddy, to arrest Macheath...
...characters' presentation determines the effectiveness of Brecht's message, as assignment this production maintains overall. Ernest Kearns' Mr. Peachum has all the disgusting elements of the petit-bourgeois, and Kearns presents Peachum with a clear understanding of the action-provoking role. Because of the flatness with which Kearns delivers statements sympathetic to Brecht--"The law was made for the rich to exploit those who don't understand it"--he maintains distance from his character. In his dryness and his logic, his running about and his posing, Kearns reduces the "Beggar's Friend" to a common demoninator, strips him down...
Each of the actresses presents her character in an individual style impeccably suited to that character's function. Daphne de Marneffe gives Polly Peachum just enough soiled innocence. With a simple shrug, de Marneffe gives over Polly Peachum for the spectator to study, to chew up and to spit right back. Martha Hackett gives the strongest female presence of the production Artfully establishing the distance between herself, the character, and the audience, Hackett states clearly that most human conflict between fantasy and reality, between love and money. Her husky voice capturing the harsh sweetness of Weill's music evokes...
...Peachum, at first made to seem farcical, acquires...