The Threepenny Opera (Characters)

Characters

Ballad Singer

The unnamed Ballad Singer serves as a kind of Greek chorus, commenting and explaining the play’s action as it unfolds. He opens the story with a grotesquely playful tale of Mac the Knife, an actual historical character who murdered prostitutes in London. Although John Gay’s Beggar’s Opera (the source material for Brecht’s work) included ballads about the thieves in his dramatic world, the songs were not as outrageous as those sung by Brecht’s narrator — a credit to the musical talents of Brecht and his composer, Kurt Weil. Throughout The Threepenny Opera, the Ballad Singer punctuates the action with distastefully mordant commentaries on the seamy action of the play, sung to a discordant tune. He sings the play’s best-known musical number “Moritat” (or “Theme from the Threepenny Opera”) — more commonly known as “Mac the Knife” — which was popularized by singer Bobby Darrin in 1959.

Sheriff Jackie Brown

Brown is the crooked High Sheriff who takes a portion of the beggars’ earnings in return for tip-offs about planned police raids. He is a long-time friend of Macheath, having served with him as a soldier in India. Brown attends Polly and Mac’s wedding and is taken aback by the wealth that surrounds his friend. When cornered by Peachum, who cites a list of Macheath’s crimes, Brown is forced to send Constable Smith out to arrest his former pal. He is a weak-willed and greedy man who expresses sorrow upon seeing Macheath in jail at the Old Bailey but nevertheless accepts the money from Peachum. Finally, as Macheath stands at the gallows, Brown rides up on horseback with a reprieve.

Lucy Brown

Lucy is the Tiger Brown’s daughter. Mac has been having an affair with Lucy, deceiving both his friend and Polly. Lucy appears to be pregnant — the father presumably Macheath — but she reveals to Polly that she has faked her pregnancy by stuffing a pillow under her dress. Lucy at first treats Polly with haughtiness but later agrees with Polly’s assertion that Macheath loves her more. Lucy finally befriends her lover’s wife.

Charles Filch

Filch comes innocently enough into Peachum’s beggar’s outfitting emporium, hoping to obtain Peachum’s permission to beg on a certain street corner. Filch proves himself singularly unsuited for the career of begging, however, being naturally inclined to pity — he expresses guilt over accepting money from people.

The Gang

With fellows such as Bob-the-Saw, Crook-fingered Jake, Jimmy, Matthew (or Matt of the Mint), Ned, Robert, and Dreary Walt, the Gang consists of thieves, cutpurses, prostitutes, pimps, and beggars. All of them are supplied costumes for the trade of begging by Mr. Jonathan Jeremiah Peachum, and they forfeit a percentage of their earnings to Macheath, who uses the money as a payoff to Sheriff Brown for protecting their racket. There is no honor among these thieves; all are ready to turn on their brothers if it will buy them an evening of food and pleasure. They give stolen gifts to Mac and Polly at their wedding.

Reverend Kimball

Kimball performs the impromptu wedding between Polly and Macheath. He is more than likely not a real priest, as he is also one of the thieving Gang.

Low-Dive Jenny

Low-dive Jenny is a former lover of Mac’s and now just one of the whores of the gang. Like the Biblical character of Judas (who deceived his leader Jesus Christ), Jenny betrays Macheath. She pretends to read Macheath’s palm, hinting at a dismal future event, then she informs Constable Smith of the thief’s whereabouts.

Mac the Knife

See Macheath

Macheath

A former war hero turned master thief, Macheath is the dark hero, the grotesque Christ figure of The Threepenny Opera. His name alludes to the murderer

Mac the Knife in Brecht’s play; he was merely an underworld criminal and womanizer in Gay’s The Beggar’s Opera. His mother-in-law, Mrs. Peachum calls him a horse-thief and a highwayman (one who robs travelers). Much like Brecht, Macheath is also a womanizer who conducts simultaneous affairs with a variety of women; he plays the attentive husband to Polly while also pursuing an affair with his friend Tiger’s daughter, Lucy.

Macheath is the kingpin of the beggar gang, a jaded criminal, and a slave to his “sexual urges.” He appears to pursue his lifestyle with little emotion or regret. He whistles nonchalantly when Polly reads him the list of charges the police have against him: “You’ve killed two shopkeepers, more than thirty burglaries, twenty-three hold-ups, and God knows how many acts of arson, attempted murder, forgery, and perjury, all within eighteen months. In Winchester you seduced two sisters under the age of consent.” Macheath’s only response to the entire list of charges is that he thought the girls were twenty.

His father-in-law, Peachum, turns Macheath over to the police to rid his daughter (as well as his own business interests) of him. In the father’s eyes, Macheath is not a desirable match. Despite facing a sentence of death for his crimes, Macheath is tough and practical, brusquely ordering Polly to watch over his interests. He accepts his fate like the soldier he once was, although he persists until the last minute in trying to bribe his way out of jail.

Celia Peachum

Polly’s mother and Peachum’s wife, Celia assists her husband at the emporium by bossing the beggars. She faints when she learns that Polly has married Macheath because she sees this as a good investment gone bad: In her mother’s eyes, Polly had the potential to be a society lady and could have raised the family’s status by marrying a wealthy man.

Jonathan Jeremiah Peachum

Peachum is the proprietor of “The Beggar’s Friend, Ltd.” He runs the begging in London like an efficient business, outfitting the beggars, training them to perfect their methods (especially the art of swindling suckers), and assigning them districts in which to work. Peachum, like Fagin in Charles Dickens’s Oliver Twist, takes a percentage of each of the Gang’s earnings, slowly getting rich while his employees live hand-to-mouth. Peachum needs Polly around his business to attract customers with her good looks. This exploitation of his daughter’s charms is disrupted when she falls in love with Macheath, marrying the thief without her father’s permission. True to his greedy and ruthless ways, Peachum solves the problem by selling Macheath out to the police.

Polly Peachum

Polly is the daughter of the beggar king, Jonathan Jeremiah Peachum. She is referred to by her father as “a lump of sensuality” — a fact that he shamelessly exploits to increase his business. Polly marries her lover, Macheath, in a makeshift ceremony in a stable. During the proceedings, she learns that Macheath has also been sexually active with Lucy.

When Lucy and Polly meet they accuse each other ruining their respective relationships with Macheath. They sing a duet in which they trade lines berating each other. While Polly and Lucy are very similar characters, it is Polly who prevails in a sustained union with Macheath. While she does not like her husband’s sexual promiscuity, she accepts it as a fundamental part of his nature.

Constable Smith

Smith is the police officer who arrests Macheath, though he accepts a bribe to leave the handcuffs off. He later offers to help Macheath escape for a one-thousand pound bribe.

Tiger

See Sheriff Jackie Brown

Media Adaptations

• Brecht wrote The Threepenny Opera as a novel in 1934 (Dreigroschenroman, translated by Vesey and Isherwood as A Penny for the Poor, R. Hale, 1937; reprinted as Threepenny Novel, Grove, 1956); but it was his play that received the most attention. He revised the script for a 1931 film version to be more politically oriented than the original 1928 play script. The black and white German film (Die Dreigroschenoper with English subtitles), directed by G. W. Pabst and starring Antonin Artaud, is available on video from Embassy Home Entertainment.
• Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM) released a 1954 recording of Kurt Weil’s music for The Threepenny Opera.
• Marc Blitzstein revived The Threepenney Opera in the 1950s and his revision of the “Mack the Knife” song became a worldwide hit for singer Bobby Darrin.
• A 1989 film version, alternatively titled Mack the Knife, was released by Columbia. Directed by Menahem Golan, the film features Raul Julia as Macheath and rock star Roger Daltrey (of the Who) as the Ballad Singer.