Sunday 18 April 2010

The Threepeny Opera

Because everyone on the university course came from such different backgrounds, the first year was clearly designed to get us all on the same page. Where Three Sisters had been intended to be our exposure to Stanislavski's theories, The Threepenny Opera was supposed to do the same for Brechtian theatre.

It didn't really work.

The cast was split across two different classes and the director struggled with remembering who had done what. The other group did animal studies twice and we didn't do it all.

She accused an actress of having mental issues. She chose to do so at full volume and in front of fifteen other people. It's difficult not to find that uncomfortable, but that wasn't quite the verfremdungseffekt Brecht intended.

She also felt that we weren't getting enough rehearsal time and so organised extra rehearsals at her home. Her directions were appalling and several people ended up at her neighbour's house instead. Her neighbour was Kate Moss.

I played Tiger Brown. I have almost no memory of the show itself, besides pulling horrific faces while singing 'The Cannon Song'.

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