About The Threepenny Opera

The premiere of Bertolt Brecht's The Threepenny Opera , directed by the German dramatist himself, took place on August 31, 1928. It is considered one of the most influential cultural events of the 20th century. The Threepenny Opera is an allegorical play that uses the melodramatic plotlines of gangsters, corrupt merchants, prostitutes, and police officers exploiting, fighting, and betraying each other to depict the survival landscape of an industrial capitalist era. This could be 19th-century London or Berlin in 1928—a system filled with perpetual exploitation and universal sin, where life is a war of all against all. In this dog-eat-dog world, you are either a winner or a loser, and most people are losers. The play's timeless depictions of betrayal are a kind of revelation and satire on the subject of "alienation". The reason we keep retelling this tale of alienation is that we cannot believe in either the golden world or the apocalypse it describes, nor can we believe that it is our future. Today's retelling of this story therefore becomes a counter-mythical myth, in line with what Brecht said in 1954: "Today steps into tomorrow, feeding on yesterday; history may be able to devour everything yet still fear emptiness."

Credits

Adapted from the play by Bertolt Brecht

Director: Li Jianjun

Cast: New Youth Group

About Li Jianjun

Li Jianjun is an independent theatre director living and working in Beijing. In 2011, he founded the New Youth Group. An important practitioner of contemporary theatre art in China, his series of theatrical works reflect his concern for the living situation of ordinary people. He combines his experience of the historical visual arts with the study of theatre media, which gives his work a distinct spirit of innovation. In recent years, his works' critical cultural stance and exploration of theatre aesthetics have brought them widespread attention and sparked controversy. This is his seventh production at Wuzhen.

About New Youth Group

The New Youth Group was founded in 2011. They have created Madman's Diary, Say Goodbye to Your Shadow, One Fine Day, 25.3km, A Man Who Flies Up to the Sky, Popular Mechanics, A Brief History of Human Evolution, A Welder's Flash, The Metamorphosis, World on a Wire, The Master and Margarita and The True Story of Ah Q. The group is devoted to exploring new theatre aesthetics and using the stage as a tool for intervening in the daily life of contemporary China. New Youth Group has been invited to the Beijing Fringe Festival, Wuzhen Theatre Festival, Festival/Tokyo, Ruhrfestspiele Recklinghausen Germany, Italy VIE Art Festival, and Festival International New Drama (FIND).