A Punk Opera

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Punk defines the politics and fashion of an era, it was brief, a phenomenon that burst like a storm of protest on an unsympathetic, uncompromisingly brutal political system and leader, devoid of compassion in pursuit of greatness and material gain.

Britain, not so Great….1970 and 80’s Margaret Thatcher…the iron lady….garbage strikes, miner closures, police brutality, unemployment, the IRA, race riots. All in response to what John Lydon aka Jonny Rotten of the Sex Pistols called the ‘shitsdom’.

Nuworks, A Punk Opera is a reimagining of Bertolt Brecht’s The Threepenny Opera which in itself is a reworking of John Gay’s The Beggars’ Opera 1728.

The basic story and characters belong to John Gay, Elizabeth Hauptmann and Brecht adding their Marxist doctrine. There’s no such overt political agenda in our reimagining. Nuworks is closer to John Gay with some sorry reflections on human foibles and hypocrisy than ideology. It’s not even a criticism of Thatcher, of whom, in fairness, it has been said was the leader Britain needed at the time. Debatable.

We’ve set the scene in Camden because that’s where it all began and we’re thrilled to be performing it in the deep heart of Camden, at Etcetra Theatre, in July 2026 as part of our Fringe tour.

In summary…its a great tale with all of the usual suspects…Macheath ( Mac the Knife ) the thoroughly dysfunctional Peachum family, Copper Green, not one of them with a single redeeming feature!

Duration: 1 hour 15 minutes

Some course contemporary language in dramatic context