Opera Scotland

Dreigroschenoper 1987Dundee Repertory Theatre Company

Read more about the opera Threepenny Opera

This excellent staging was typical of the general quality of output at Dundee Rep in the years after the new building opened in 1982. The theatre's director was a well-known Scottish actor, Robert Robertson.  He had two leading assistants in the designer Neil Murray and young director Alan Lyddiard.

Murray quickly took to directing, bringing a valuable sense of style to many productions.  He frequently directed and designed the annual Christmas play, usually from the pen of local writer Stuart Paterson (the Rep tended to avoid the traditional 'pantomime' format).  His other stagings ranged from popular thriller (Agatha Christie's Death on the Nile) to Jacobean tragedy (John Ford's 'Tis Pity She's a Whore).

This Threepenny Opera also had a great sense of style, set 'in a derelict Victorian opera house', with highly ornamented proscenium arch and boxes (suitably distressed) framing the stage in the spartan modern auditorium.  The musical side was cleverly arranged for a spirited quintet of instrumentalists - trumpet, trombone, percussion and clarinet/saxophone, led by Charles Barber on keyboard.

The quality of singing was also remarkably good for a provincial theatre.  Shirley Henderson went on to a leading role in the Mike Leigh Gilbert and Sullivan film Topsy Turvy, while the Dundonian Graham Valentine later worked with Scottish Opera and at Covent Garden.

Ann Louise Ross, an excellent singing actress, had already toured in this Weill piece with Borderline, and would become a popular member of the Rep's permanent Ensemble when that was eventually established under the direction of Hamish Glen in 1999.