Sean Power - Reviews & Interviews

The Threepenny Epic Cabaret
1 May 1996 - Now Magazine:
"Egoist Bertolt Brecht scrutinized by Bald Ego" (by Jill Lawless)

Egoist Bertolt Brecht scrutinized by Bald Ego

THE THREEPENNY EPIC CABARET,
by Stan Rogal and the company,
directed by Adam Nashman,
with Rogal, Christopher Brauer, Christine Brubaker, Selina Martin, Sean Power, Lisa Ryder, Kristen Thomson and Bob Wiseman.
Presented by Bald Ego Theatre and Theatre Passe Muraille at the Passe Muraille Backspace (16 Ryerson).

By JILL LAWLESS

Let's put on a show in the barn! - the rallying cry of do-it-yourself dramatic enthusiasm - echoes through all stage productions. Theatre is one of the most collaborative of the arts.

That makes it one of the messiest. Critics and historians like things neat. Collaboration collides with our desire to discover auteurs, to make artistry an individual achievement.

Bald Ego Theatre fights such simplifications. The company behind Cafe Naked, And He Lost His Head and The City Wears A Slouch Hat is an ensemble whose creations - spicy slews of physical humour, music, evocative imagery and from this or stealing from that. 'You do it because you're trying to create a show and you have no money and, meanwhile, your personal life is falling apart.

"People try to separate life from art. I'm trying to show a little more of the life involved in creating art."

In the case of The Threepenny Opera creative chaos produced dramatic dynamite. An adaptation of John Gay's 18th-century Beggar's Opera that pillages everything from cabaret and popular music to Villon and Kipling, it's a ramshackle, satirical story of gangsters, prostitutes and politics. as tuneful as it is bitter.

"Brecht must have breathed a sigh invited the bourgeoisie to see The Threepenny Opera, and they loved it. He was rubbing their noses in shit, but they loved the play, loved the music, loved being shown as crooks. It became an entertainment, Mac The Knife has become a campy, upbeat pop song - now it's being used as a McDonald's commercial,"

The Bald Ego play, too, is an all-singing, all-dancing entertainment. But Rogal is also attracted to Brecht the provocateur.

Political play

"Over time, this play has become much more political. It's inevitable, given that Mike Harris is in government. And cabaret has always been political.

"We make references to the politics of today as a sort of alienation effect. We're not trying to say that today is the same as 1928 Berlin, when Hitler was around. But I hope people will make connections between then and now and what has been going on for centuries - there are always poor people, there are always rich people, and there are always rich people taking advantage of poor people."