Play MAHAGONNY. AFTERPARTY consists of two parts: MAHAGONNY – EIN SONGSPIEL (30 min, 6 songs) by Weill and Brecht, and AFTERPARTY by a Polish composer based in the Netherlands, Kasia Głowicka – a piece with lyrics by Bartosz FISZ Waglewski. The entire production maintains the form of a songspiel in which the story is told through songs and musical interludes.
An absent but principle character of the play is a false metropolitan utopia, full of delusions. We get to know the characters before they reach it, during their striving to fulfil the great dream of a better life, and later during their escape from that place, on their way to find themselves. The “journey toward” and the “escape from” correspond with the two parts of the show.
Weill and Brecht’s composition was supposed to be a cautionary tale warning against the imagined city of corruption at the dawn of the 20th century, in which they were not only critically describing the capitalism of the time, but they also effectively recognised the exclusionary social mechanisms right before the outbreak of the Second World War.
The new composition by Głowicka and Waglewski looks at Mahagonny as a real example of a city in which we have lived for the last decade. When almost a century after Brecht and Weill, and after two years of isolation caused by the pandemic, feeling the effects of jobs that do not provide satisfaction, many people decided to quit the illusion of a life in huge agglomerations. The search for oneself has begun, and asking personal questions: about the place where we belong, about identity and the goal. Głowicka and Waglewski’s response to Weill and Brecht’s songs is inspired by the stories of contemporary Warsaw residents – both original and newcomers, those who chose to live here and those who were forced to do so.
This performance is funded in part by the
Kurt Weill Foundation for Music, Inc., New York, NY
