The challenge with this play was posed to the students from Escola de Jazz Ofício das Artes (Jazz Arts Academy) for their apprenticeship. We thus proposed that they work on the play “Ópera dos Três Vinténs”, with dramaturgical and musical support, to establish a language between jazz, storytelling and the complex music composed by Kurt Weill, giving the young students their first encounter with a renowned musical and theatrical work. Appealing to the creativity of these students, we put together Act I of this complex and timeless play using a contemporary aesthetic, close to the suburbs of the big cities.

The play comprises four groups of characters: the bandits, the beggars, the police and the prostitutes. Mack the Knife is the leader of the gang of bandits and Mr Peachum is the owner of the company that controls and exploits the beggars. Explanation of the dramatic conflict is brief and heuristic, but it is a necessary first step.
The conflict begins when Mack the Knife and Polly Peachum (Mr Peachum’s daughter) decide to get married, which Mr Peachum attempts to stop by putting pressure on the Chief of the London Police, Tiger Brown, Mack the Knife’s old friend.

“Ópera dos Três Vinténs” […] is like an account of theatre life that the audience wants to see. However, since the audience sees things they would prefer not to see, and their desires not only satisfied but also criticised (seeing themselves as an object, rather than a subject), they are theoretically capable of attributing a new role to theatre.
(Brecht 1967: 67)