Kneehigh Returning to Birmingham Rep

This autumn Kneehigh return to Birmingham Repertory Theatre following their sell-out run of Rebecca earlier this year, with their critically acclaimed radical new reworking of the Beggar's Opera, Dead Dog In A Suitcase (And Other Love Songs).

Mayor Goodman has been assassinated. Contract killer Macheath has just married Pretty Polly Peachum and Mr and Mrs Peachum aren't happy. Not one bit.

Based on the Beggar's Opera, John Gay's classic musical satire, Dead Dog In A Suitcase (And Other Love Songs) is busting with wit, wonder and weirdness. An extraordinary Kneehigh cast of actor musicians shoot, hoot and shimmy their way through this twisted morality tale of our times...by turns shocking, hilarious, heartfelt and absurd.

The gorgeous and powerful live score combines trip hop and folk, Renaissance polyphony and psychedelia, and ska, grime and dubstep, echoing Gay's original by plundering the sounds of our times.

Written by Carl Grose, with a brand new score of live music written by Charles Hazelwood, and directed by Joint Artistic Director Mike Shepherd, Dead Dog In A Suitcase (And Other Love Songs) is a twisted morality tale for our times.

The original Beggar's Opera was written in 1728 by John Gay and was adapted by Bertolt Brecht and Kurt Weill in 1928 as The Threepenny Opera. Like its predecessors, Kneehigh's new version is a musical satire that holds a mirror to contemporary society- confronting big business, corrupt institutions, and urban myths.

Writer Carl Grose said:

"The story of the dead dog in the suitcase is a "genuine" story. Google it. It's urban myth. It's modern folklore. And that feels like what our Beggar's Opera is, too. If John Gay's was highwaymen, prostitutes and street thieves, ours is about the mythic underbelly of NOW - corporate conspiracy, hit men, warped Robin Hood-types, the end of civilisation, dead dogs in suitcases - all combined to create a portrait of a world hanging by a thread, in turns shocking, hilarious, heartfelt and absurd"

Music Director Charles Hazlewood will be bringing the original songs of the Beggar's Opera up to date. He said:

"The Beggar's Opera hit an unsuspecting world like a thunderbolt in 1728: an 'opera' about the essential injustice of the world, where rich and poor are corrupt alike, yet the poor go down for it and the rich do not. An 'opera' whose musical foundations seemed entirely borne of the fleshpots and gin palaces, specifically an opera where arias - instead of being arthouse confections - were a festering muck-heap of scabrous little ditties belonging to everyone and no-one.

"But down the years The Beggar's Opera has lost its teeth, not least because these once rapacious little tunes have evaporated from our collective consciousness. When the piece is revived, it is invariably as a charming museum-piece. The score entirely lacks the resonance John Gay endowed it with. The tunes have lost their context.

"I cannot make these tunes current and ubiquitous again. So my mission is to give them back their bite: by bending, bastardising them, often completely remaking them, and by dressing them in new and unfamiliar musical garb, so that the invigorating power of this piece might make a new mark on our sophisticated, and complacent ears"

A company of Kneehigh actor musicians will bring Carl's script and Charles' music and songs to life in the true spirit of this award winning Cornish company. The Designer is Michael Vale, who also designed Kneehigh's Hansel & Gretel which toured to Liverpool Everyman and Playhouse in 2009. Sarah Wright will be working with Michael as Puppet Designer. Malcolm Rippeth (Brief Encounter, The Red Shoes) will design the lighting and Etta Murfitt (Steptoe and Son, The Wild Bride) will Choreograph.

Kneehigh have enjoyed huge critical success this year with a UK and international tour of Tristan & Yseult, and are also touring their much loved stage version of Brief Encounter to Australia and the US.

Listings Information

Dead Dog In A Suitcase (And Other Love Songs)
Birmingham Repertory Theatre, Centenary Square, Broad Street, Birmingham B1 2EP
Dates: Tuesday 29 September to Saturday 3 October
Performance times: 7pm on Tue, 7.30pm Wed to Sat. Matinees at 2.00pm on Thu 1 and Sat 3 Oct.
Tickets: £19.50 - £35
Box Office: 0121 236 4455 Online Booking: Birmingham-rep.co.uk

Suitable for ages 14+