Reviews 2007
Reviews 2007
✭✭✭✩✩
music by Kurt Weill, book and lyrics by Bertolt Brecht, directed by Tim Albery
Soulpepper Theatre Company, Young Centre, Toronto
January 30-March 10, 2007
With its critique of the exploitation of the poor, political corruption and bourgeois sentimentality, Brecht and Weill’s The Threepenny Opera (1928) continues to be bitingly relevant. Soulpepper’s production is one of the best to come along in a long time, but it could still be better. What it needs is a rock solid cast of singing actors playing in a uniform acting style. While it is praiseworthy to include members of the inaugural Soulpepper Academy, the gap between their acting level and that of the more seasoned players is often wide.
What anchors the whole show is the performance of Albert Schultz as Macheath, better known as “Mack the Knife.” Looking like Conrad Black in a three-piece pinstripe suit, Schultz knows how to make this smirking villain fascinating and has the voice to bring off Macheath’s great songs with panache. As his new wife Polly, Patricia O’Callaghan gives sublime performances of her famous numbers but is less effective in the dialogue. William Webster as Polly’s father Mr. Peachum is second only to Schultz in bringing out the venom in his words and songs. In contrast, Nancy Palk as his wife acts as if she were in an English drawing room comedy. Of the Academy members d’bi.young.anitafrika as an androgynous Ballad Singer is magnetic presence throughout.
©Christopher Hoile
Note: A version of this review appeared in Eye Weekly 2007-02-08.
Photo: Weyni Mengisha, Stuart Hughes, Mike Ross, Nancy Palk, William Webster, Albert Schultz and Patricia O’Callaghan. ©Tannis Toohey.
2007-02-08
The Threepenny Opera