The latest in Spazju Kreattiv’s Encore series is a live capture of the National Theatre in London’s version of The Threepenny Opera.

Written by Bertolt Brecht and set to the music of Kurt Weill, The Threepenny Opera proved to be a milestone of 20th-century musical theatre as it transformed saccharine, old-fashioned opera and operetta forms, incorporating a sharp political perspective and the sound of 1920s Berlin dance bands and cabaret. Famous musicals like Cabaret and Chicago were inspired by this very work which also gave the world the immensely popular song Mack the Knife.

The National Theatre’s version is a vivid and darkly comic new adaptation by award-winning playwright Simon Stephens. Rufus Norris directs a bold and anarchic production which unfolds as a shabby figure comes onstage with a barrel organ and launches into a song chronicling the crimes of the notorious bandit and womaniser Macheath, ‘Mack the Knife’ (played by Rory Kinnear). As the Balladeer (played by George Ikediashi) states, the audience is invited to a “glorious dirty ditch of a theatre… [to] an opera for a city that has gone beyond morality”.

American author and Broadway theatre critic Walter Kerr described The Threepenny Opera as “[the] most wonderfully insulting music I’ve ever come across”, while singer-songwriter Bob Dylan admitted to being “aroused straightaway by the raw intensity of the songs”.

■ The Threepenny Opera is screening at the cinema at St James Cavalier in Valletta today at 7.30pm with a repeat on Sunday, October 30, at 6.30pm. It is suitable for those aged 15 and over. For more information, visit http://kreattivita.org .

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