Ein Fest für Mackie

This is an enjoyable and grotesque spectacle of the Ruhr with seemingly familiar characters from The Beggar’s Opera. Mackie used to be the city’s top gangster. He started out taking coal out of the ground.  Later he took televisions out of people’s houses when they couldn’t pay them off. Now all he does is stand by the window – he doesn’t dare go outside because of panic attacks. His wife Polly manages both him and the business.

The local pub is getting ready for a big party. Everyone is invited and there will be a pub cantata – the pianist is already sitting there waiting. Mr & Mrs Peachum, who dream of the good old bad old days and still hate their daughter Polly for making the good for nothing Mack their son-in-law are prepared for the celebrations.  But shouldn’t the guests be here by now? Where has Mack got to – he was supposed to hold the opening speech. And where are the hundred people who all said they’d come? And where is that damned student choir who were supposed to liven up this mining community?

Nostalgic, cutting but not without hope

Mack the Knife’s Party is at times nostalgic and romantic and at times disillusioned and cutting, at times realistic but not without hope. This pub cantata is a work that has been commissioned jointly to mark the centenaries of both the Bochumer Symphoniker and Schauspielhaus Bochum from the composer Moritz Eggert and librettist Martin Becker.

Moritz Eggert is one of the most versatile and innovative composers of the new music scene. He experiments with a range of musical styles and creates scores for music theatre, dance theatre and performance. His compositions include large scale orchestral works, vocal, film and chamber music.   Moritz Eggert is currently developing a city-wide orchestral project for Bonn for the Beethoven Year 2020. He also makes live appearances as a pianist, singer and performer – as in Mack the Knife’s Party.

The journalist and author Martin Becker has written both fiction and radio drama as well as compiling features for e.g. WDR. 2007 His collection of short stories Ein schönes Leben was published in 2007 and the novel Der Rest der Nacht in 2014. This was followed by Marschmusik in 2017 and most recently in the spring of 2019 Warten auf Kafka. Eine literarische Seelenkunde Tschechiens.