Jonathan Jeremiah Peachum, the “Beggar’s Friend”, controller of all the beggars in London; conspires to have Mack hanged. Set in Victorian London, the Threepenny Opera focuses on Macheath, an amoral, antiheroic criminal, who marries Polly Peachum. This displeases her father, who controls the beggars of London, and he endeavours to have Macheath hanged. His attempts are hindered by the fact that the Chief of Police, Tiger Brown, is Macheath’s old army comrade. Still, Peachum exerts his influence and eventually gets Macheath arrested and sentenced to hang. Macheath escapes this fate via a deus ex machina moments before the execution when, in an unrestrained parody of a happy ending, a messenger from the Queen arrives to pardon Macheath and grant him the title of baron.
Creators/Key Contributors Bertolt Brecht, Kurt Weill, G. W. Pabst
First Appearance The Threepenny Opera (Die Dreigroschenoper)
First Publisher ○
Appearance List The Threepenny Opera (Play, German: Die Dreigroschenoper, 1928), The Threepenny Opera (Film, German: Die 3 Groschen-Oper, 1931), et. al.
Description Jonathan Jeremiah Peachum, the “Beggar’s Friend”, controller of all the beggars in London; conspires to have Mack hanged. Set in Victorian London, the Threepenny Opera focuses on Macheath, an amoral, antiheroic criminal, who marries Polly Peachum. This displeases her father, who controls the beggars of London, and he endeavours to have Macheath hanged. His attempts are hindered by the fact that the Chief of Police, Tiger Brown, is Macheath’s old army comrade. Still, Peachum exerts his influence and eventually gets Macheath arrested and sentenced to hang. Macheath escapes this fate via a deus ex machina moments before the execution when, in an unrestrained parody of a happy ending, a messenger from the Queen arrives to pardon Macheath and grant him the title of baron.
