The 70th anniversary of Bertolt Brecht's death and the inexhaustible Threepenny Opera

Conversation with Keng Yi-wei and Chung Chiao: German contribution to the Taipei International Book Exhibition 2026

"The Threepenny Opera", which premiered on 31 August 1928 at the Theater am Schiffbauerdamm in Berlin, became the greatest theatrical success of the 1920s. Bertolt Brecht's play – written in collaboration with Elisabeth Hauptmann and with music by Kurt Weill – features beggars, prostitutes and robbers, depicting the dark, criminal side of big-city life. Despite being set in Victorian England, "The Threepenny Opera" uses satire and mockery to criticise the bourgeois capitalist world of the Weimar Republic. According to Brecht's new principle of ‘epic theatre’, the action on stage should not draw the audience into an illusory world, but rather encourage them to critically reflect on social conditions.

For this discussion, we have invited two experts: CHUNG Chiao, director of Assignment Theatre, and KENG Yi-Wei, dramaturge and lecturer in the Department of Theatre Studies at Taipei University of the Arts.

They will talk about Brecht's work and its impact 70 years after his death. Anyone interested is warmly invited to attend!