In London: The Threepenny Opera at the National Theater

Selfie with Kidane Isaac Tikue and
a Threepenny Opera poster

“This is an opera for a city that has gone beyond morality. A cheap opera. A threepenny opera.”

With these spoken lines, opens London's National Theater production of Bertolt Brecht's and Kurt Weill's dark masterpiece (1928), "The Threepenny Opera" (TPO), a play with songs about the devastating consequences of naked self interest, bourgeois decadence, rampant corruption, and the pernicious effects of poverty. The German duo's adaption of John Gay’s 18th century "Beggar’s Opera" hasn’t dated at all. Sadly.

I was thrilled to sit beside Kidane Isaac Tikue at his maiden experience of the great tunes and wordy lyrics, mini-dramas in their own right. We dissected the work over lousy cappuccino in the Theater cafe and later at Whole Foods (amazing cappuccino!).

Outside the theater at Southbank Centre — sunny, cheerful, people, pets, food, art, and Modified Social Benches.

On the ground, a plaque about Festival of Love 2016
 and the Danish artist's winning entry 

On this Modified Social Bench, a boy climbs
while a woman sits reading a book