La Ópera de los Tres Centavos con Coque Malla

A version of Bertolt Brecht and Kurt Weill's work, with Coque Malla, that sets in interwar London a criminal and musical comedy about corruption, power and money.

This production stages the work by Bertolt Brecht and Kurt Weill, with the collaboration of Elisabeth Hauptmann, presented as a criminal and musical comedy with a strongly contemporary character. The action takes place in the British capital during the interwar period, a setting of poverty and corruption where misery and luxury coexist.

Mackie Navaja, a pimp and criminal, rules the streets among brothels, bribes and shady business. Jonathan Peachum, owner of a declining slaughterhouse, makes the most of beggars as if they were a profitable company. When Polly, his daughter, secretly marries Mackie, Peachum allies himself with the corrupt authorities to see him hanged, and Polly proves to be a strategist capable of manoeuvring among the men around her.

The staging is grotesque, with cynical characters and music that does not give way to sentimentality. With betrayals along the way and ironic songs, Mackie ends up sentenced to death, but a last-minute pardon granted by the Crown makes it clear that, in this system, justice functions as one more show. Black humour emerges as the only defence against despair.