In The Threepenny Opera, however, Brecht also makes use of character archetypes-the slick gangster, the lovestruck ingenue, the “ginny” whore, the beggar, the corrupt policeman-to highlight the inequity inherent in theater: the very people the play is, or should be, for are often barred from seeing it due to being priced out or shunned from “polite” society. Rather, it should be a way for common people to see themselves and their plights represented by the actors-a similarly working-class group of peers who are equally angry about the social, economic, and political injustices of the world.Īll of Brecht’s theatrical works involve some measure of artifice-revealing the mechanics of theatrics, after all, is one of the key tenets of the epic theater movement. Through the twinned use of archetypes and artifice-artifice in this instance representing the contrived nature of the opera’s plot, and the ways in which the work repeatedly recognizes itself as a construct-Brecht argues that theater should not be an institution of or for the bourgeoisie. Throughout The Threepenny Opera, Brecht deepens the self-referential aesthetic of epic theater by employing the use of character archetypes which add to the moralistic, cheeky plot. During his lifetime, Bertolt Brecht became well-known as one of the foremost (and most experimentally-minded) practitioners of “epic theater”-a theatrical form in which the audience is constantly reminded of their role as spectators, and in which the play or opera makes frequent nods to its own dramatic structure.

Brecht the threepenny opera