First comes the food, then comes morality. A petty criminals' wedding! In a horse stable in the London district of Soho, the bandit Macheath, known as Mackie Messer (Mack the Knife), marries Polly Peachum, the daughter of the King of the Beggars. Among those congratulating the happy couple at the wedding are Macheath's accomplices and Police Chief Tiger-Brown, who has been friends with Mackie since their time together in the army and who regularly turns a blind eye to his shady dealings. What neither Brown nor Polly knows is that it's not only Polly but also Brown's own daughter, Lucy, who has fallen victim to Macheath's seductive charms! Polly's father, Jonathan Jeremiah Peachum, a successful operator of the company "Beggars' Friend," also has a say in the secretly concluded marriage. He not only seeks the quickest possible divorce for the newlywed couple, but would most like to see Macheath hanged on the gallows for his misdeeds right away. His wife, Celia, sets a trap for Mackie Messer: she bribes the "Whores of Soho," who promptly hand Mac over to the constabulary when, despite all warnings, he comes to visit them as he does every Thursday. While Macheath plots in the dungeon of Old Bailey to escape execution, Police Chief Brown has quite different worries: the solemn coronation procession of the Queen of England is imminent, and a threatened uprising of the starving and poor on London's streets is the last thing he needs... In 1928, the premiere of The Threepenny Opera, with its unsparing analysis of political conditions, struck a nerve in the Weimar Republic. Together with the composer Kurt Weill, Brecht created an opera of "beggars, thieves and whores," who, unlike the bourgeoisie, cannot afford morality.

Alisha-Vivienne Hellmuth

Events

Past events

Nov 6, 2026 - May 2, 2027

The Threepenny Opera · Mainfranken-Theater Würzburg

Future and recently performed repertoire

Polly Peachum in The Threepenny Opera by Weill

Mainfranken-Theater Würzburg

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