sols-dreigroschen-blog

[sols-dreigroschen-blog]

"I shan't be so crude and ask for his birth certificate if he is genteel enough to invite my daughter and me to the Octopus Hotel for a little hop."

[sols-dreigroschen-blog]

Polly and Macheath, meeting for the first time

[sols-dreigroschen-blog]

i can feel the hyperfixation returning oh no

[sols-dreigroschen-blog]

[yt]

[sols-dreigroschen-blog]

[yt]

[sols-dreigroschen-blog]

Friendly reminder das Mackie Messer sein* Kind laut Dreigroschenroman canonically Dick nennen würde

[sols-dreigroschen-blog]

January, 2024: Bertolt Brecht's The Threepenny Opera enters public domain.

Me: Grabs my computer and resumes work on the girl power/sisterhood/women-supporting-women play inspired by it that I've put on hold since 2019.

[sols-dreigroschen-blog]

Die Seeräuberjenny

Meine Herren, heute sehen Sie mich Gläser abwaschen Und ich mache das Bett für jeden. Und Sie geben mir einen Penny und ich bedanke mich schnell Und Sie sehen meine Lumpen und dies lumpige Hotel Und Sie wissen nicht, mit wem Sie reden. Und Sie wissen nicht, mit wem Sie reden. Aber eines Abends wird ein Geschrei sein am Hafen Und man fragt "Was ist das für ein Geschrei?" Und man wird mich lächeln seh'n bei meinen Gläsern Und man sagt "Was lächelt die dabei?"

Und ein Schiff mit acht Segeln Und mit fünfzig Kanonen Wird liegen am Kai.

Man sagt "Geh, wisch deine Gläser, mein Kind" Und man reicht mir den Penny hin. Und der Penny wird genommen, und das Bett wird gemacht! Es wird keiner mehr drin schlafen in dieser Nacht. Und sie wissen immer noch nicht, wer ich bin. Und sie wissen immer noch nicht, wer ich bin. Aber eines Abends wird ein Getös sein am Hafen Und man frag "Was ist das für ein Getös?" Und man wird mich stehen sehen hinterm Fenster Und man fragt "Was lächelt die so bös?"

Und das Schiff mit acht Segeln Und mit fünfzig Kanonen Wird beschießen die Stadt.

Meine Herren, da wird ihr Lachen aufhören Denn die Mauern werden fallen hin Und die Stadt wird gemacht dem Erdboden gleich. Nur ein lumpiges Hotel wird verschont von dem Streich Und man fragt "Wer wohnt Besonderer darin?" Und man fragt "Wer wohnt Besonderer darin?" Und in dieser Nacht wird ein Geschrei um das Hotel sein Und man fragt "Warum wird das Hotel verschont?" Und man wird mich sehen treten aus der Tür gen Morgen Und man sagt "Die hat darin gewohnt?"

Und das Schiff mit acht Segeln Und mit fünfzig Kanonen Wird beflaggen den Mast.

Und es werden kommen hundert gen Mittag an Land Und werden in den Schatten treten Und fangen einen jeglichen aus jeglicher Tür Und legen ihn in Ketten und bringen vor mir Und mich fragen "Welchen sollen wir töten?" Und an diesem Mittag wird es still sein am Hafen Wenn man fragt, wer wohl sterben muss. Und dann werden Sie mich sagen hören "Alle!" Und wenn dann der Kopf fällt, sage ich "Hoppla!"

Und das Schiff mit acht Segeln Und mit fünfzig Kanonen Wird entschwinden mit mir.

--Bertolt Brecht

[sols-dreigroschen-blog]

today's the daaaay!

i roped a friend who is very into musicals and theatre into watching the 2004 St. Pauli Theatre staging with me and i am SO excited <3

[sols-dreigroschen-blog]

Die dreigroschenoper / The Threepenny Opera (Georg Wilhelm Pabst, 1931)

[sols-dreigroschen-blog]

art by Jonas Greulich Die Dreigroschenoper https://www.jonasgreulich.com/portfolio/dreigroschenoper/

[sols-dreigroschen-blog]

okay so i met a friend yesterday to watch the 2018 Mackie Messer film and her new boyfriend was there as well and i haven't met him before so all info this man has about me is 135 minutes of German arthouse cinema

talking about first impressions

[sols-dreigroschen-blog]

on today's episode of Sol reviewing Threepenny Adaptions, the 1989 Mack The Knife movie

it was... cool? idk what to feel, some parts i enjoyed a lot, some very little, overall i am certainly happy i watched it but i probably won't watch it again

the main negative point for me was the music, i really, really didn't like the translation they used - i think it's the original Blitzstein one? i am familiar with the altered Blitzstein version that was used in the Broadway adaption, which i personally think is both the most aesthetically pleasing one as well as the closest to the original text (both in actual text as well as in Vibes™); the Donmare Warehouse one is too "edgy" (or shall i say crude?) for my tastes, and the one used in this movie was too tame AND too goofy, also the text in some parts didn't have anything to do with the original, like, at all; this really spoilt my enjoyment of the whole thing a lot

visually i was also not that much of a fan? my first thought when seeing the set was the Muppets' Christmas Carol, and it didn't really go away; the costumes were very hit or miss for me, some i loved a lot (Polly's costume with the top hat when she visits Mac in jail, the whores in general and especially Jenny, Jonathan's coat and changing hats), some were terrible (whatever Celia had going on but especially that horrible nightcap, Polly's costume in the beginning which looked like she wandered over from the set of Little House on the Prairie); i also thought the ensemble dancing scenes absolutely terrible

i don't have much of an opinion on Mackie's portrayal, he was fine, but nothing special to me, i was kind of indifferent to him, which was a little odd, since i loved Raul Julia in the Broadway staging, dunno what was the point here

Polly was also pretty boring to me, but then again, the movie didn't give her much to do, she was a little too much on the naive side for my tastes

for the first time, i really liked a Jonathan! he was tall and lanky and had a certain sleazy conman kind of vibe, which i think is essential to the character, the only thing i didn't exactly like was that he was very tame and more on the comedic side? he felt not cynical enough, and also not at all religious, which is an important facet of his character to me

Celia was nice, definitely not my favourite Celia, but her and the Jonathan played really well together, i didn't like it how she was just a bumbling drunk and nagging wife for most of the movie, but in the scenes where she wasn't, she was amazing! also i really loved that Jonathan was tall and lanky and Celia short and chubby, which is how i imagined them while reading :D

Tiger Brown was surprisingly good looking, the Filch surprisingly terrible looking, Lucy was very good although personally i would have switched the actresses for Polly and Lucy

my absolute favourite however was JENNY, she was absolutely flawless and perfect, the acting was great and she looked almost exactly like i imagined Jenny to look, tall, frizzy red hair and a big, aquiline nose, she just lacked the freckles and she would have been straight from my head, she even wore a black lace dress similar to the one i painted her in; this opinion might or might not be influenced by how goddamn GAY i am for this woman

the street singer was a really cool addition, i like narrator type characters like this a lot and he was very fun; the whole Suky Tawdry thing was less to my tastes idk it just struck me the wrong way; the ending was very Brechtian, but didn't fit with the decidedly un-Brechtian rest of the movie, so it just felt eh to me; also i sorely missed the Second Threepenny Finale (it's one of the best songs!!! how could you cut it!!) and why has seemingly no adaption ever the Kampf um das Eigentum scene between Polly and Lucy in it, why do y'all hate FUN! (maybe i should be thankful this had Lucy at all)

some details i liked a lot included the expanded conversation between Jonathan and Celia in their shop, the fact that Lucy bit Polly's fucking ankle during Eifersuchtsduett (please don't show me a staging that doesn't have this ever again), lots of funky hats, the whores in general and their costumes and set design in particular, the fact that Polly's parents both have a brogue and she hasn't, the chariot chase, the fact that the window scene with Mac and Celia was included (it's one of my favourites!), and last but not least the way the Ballad of Immoral Earnings was done almost making my cry

[sols-dreigroschen-blog]

i roped a friend who is very into musicals and theatre into watching the 2004 St. Pauli Theatre staging with me and i am SO excited <3

[sols-dreigroschen-blog]

okay so i've been thinking about Jonathan and Celia, and what their story is...

i imagine that they married because Celia was pregnant with Polly, and that she married "down" - her parents were maybe not bourgeois per se, but able to afford a comfortable life, maybe they owned a shop of some kind, where Celia and her siblings had to help out a lot, which is probably how she met Jonathan

i see him as a beggar himself in his younger years, orphaned and left to fend for himself, keeping afloat with begging, the occasional odd jobs, pickpocketing and the likes. i also think he used to be honestly pious as a child, maybe he was raised in a convent (that would explain the very biblical name as well) but he ran away there and became disillusioned with God, because what cruel God would allow such misery and this whole shtick, so he turned out very jaded towards religion

maybe he used to beg in the street in front of Celia's parents' shop, and she saw him outside on the street and took pity on him, snuck him something to eat or gave him leftovers in the evening, and he kept returning, and one night it was very cold and she snuck him inside and offered him a place to sleep in the back of the shop, and then one thing led to the other, you know...

maybe she kept seeing him now and then, but some time after, she noticed that she was pregnant and confided in her sister, who then told her parents, and they were furious with poor Celia, her father or brother probably found Jonathan and beat him up and told him to marry her or else, and Jonathan reluctantly agreed, mostly motivated by the hope of getting into more stable circumstances by marriage, but Celia's parents basically kicked her out after the wedding, as she was now her husband's responsibility and no longer theirs

so Celia had to leave the modest but comfortable life she knew, moving in with her husband in a crammy one-room appartment in a shady part of town, where they often went hungry and cold and what not, and finally had a daughter they named Polly, and Jonathan, who hadn't cared much about his wife or her pregnancy until now was suddenly obsessed with the baby and vowed to give her a better life, and enlisted Celia's knowledge to start his own business, collecting and selling rags or whatever, but it didn't go all that well until he noticed that there was much more money in racketeering and this was the beginning of Beggar's Friend

i imagine them having other children after Polly, but all of them being miscarriages or dying in the cradle, and this is one of the reasons why Celia started drinking, aside from never quite adapting to her new life, because Jonathan did not offer her any comfort in this situation, instead being quietly resentful because she wouldn't give him a son and raising Polly as if she were his son instead

i like to think Celia bought Polly the romance books, because it used to be her favourite way of escaping her dire reality as well, and also why she fell for Mackie's ploy so easily, because she wanted her daughter to marry better than she did, and because a fine gentleman inviting her to dance in a upscale hotel was what she had dreamed of so often, and she just wanted to indulge in this other life for a moment, however briefly

[sols-dreigroschen-blog]

i am drowning in Celia feels...

she is usually played as more of a comedic relief type character but there is so much more to her than just drunkenly stumbling across the stage in a morning coat... she's this very jaded, cynical woman, disillusioned by years and years of a loveless marriage where her husband constantly talks down to her and exploits her for her business, but sometimes there's a glimpse of something else... maybe it's true that every cynic is a disappointed romantic, a somewhere deep down, Celia longs for the same things as her daughter, a gentleman who will sweep her off her feet, a whirlwind romance, but she is stuck, because what would she do without her husband? so she stays, and she drinks to take the edge off of her bleak reality, and tries her best to put on this facade of the jaded cynic

just... Celia Peachum, my beloved

[sols-dreigroschen-blog]

watch out Mackie, these girls have had enough