The Threepenny Opera, Baal, and the Mother (Three Penny Opera, Baal & the Mother) [Paperback]

Bertolt Brecht (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Language Notes

Text: English (translation)
Original Language: German

Product Details

• Paperback: 206 pages
• Publisher: Arcade Publishing (October 15, 1993)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1559701889
• ISBN-13: 978-1559701884
• Product Dimensions: 6.9 x 4.1 x 0.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,885,020 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars 3 Penny is good, but check out The Mother, February 17, 2005

By 

Sparky (Berkeley, CA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Threepenny Opera, Baal, and the Mother (Three Penny Opera, Baal & the Mother) (Paperback)

I have seen several performances of Brecht's famous 3 Penny Opera and have enjoyed them all, but the play I would encourage people to read from this collection is The Mother. It is one of Brecht's "learning plays" and is based on a novel by Maxim Gorky.

The Mother

What a wonderful play! This play is set in Russia and is about the transformation of Pelagea Vlassova, an illiterate, somewhat narrow and worn, older woman. She starts out suspicious of her son's new friends -- a group of young Bolsheviks who make leaflets in her home! They endanger, she feels, her already precarious and poverty stricken existence. But as she questions and observes these youth she is drawn into the revolution and comes alive, changing into a badass revolutionary herself: creative, daring and courageous. Music and song accompany her transformation -- and the fourth wall is broken many times as the actors take turns talking frankly to the audience about the story as it unfolds.