katelovespirate
this isn't hugely close, but one of my favorite plays is the Threepenny Opera. and a lot of the themes/characters/elements are similar to POTC. anyone else seen it/heard it?
the main character is this antihero called Macheath (Mac the Knife). The main girl is called Polly, and despite pretending to be a proper girl, she is a wild girl that runs off to marry Macheath after singing a song called "Pirate Jenny".
here's a little summary:
In the Threepenny Opera, Macheath (Mack the Knife) marries Polly Peachum. This displeases her father, Jonathan Peachum, who controls the beggars of London, and he endeavours to have Macheath hanged. This is somewhat complicated by the fact that the chief of police, Tiger Brown, is an old friend of Macheath's. Peachum exerts considerable political influence, and eventually Macheath is arrested and imprisoned, escapes, then imprisoned once more. At the point of execution, in an unrestrained parody of a happy ending, a hard-riding messenger from the Queen (possibly meant to be Victoria, although the play's chronology is deliberately unclear) dramatically arrives at the last minute, and Macheath is pardoned and given a baronetcy. (Another Brecht-Weill work is titled Happy End.)
The Threepenny Opera directly challenges the audience by breaching the "fourth wall" with what Brecht called Verfremdungseffekt, or "alienation technique." For example, slogans are projected on the back wall and the characters sometimes carry picket signs, or stand at times with their backs to the audience. The play challenges conventional notions of property as well as theater. It asks the central rhetorical question, "Who is the bigger criminal: he who robs a bank or he who founds one?"
Just thought it was kind of an interesting parallel!
the main character is this antihero called Macheath (Mac the Knife). The main girl is called Polly, and despite pretending to be a proper girl, she is a wild girl that runs off to marry Macheath after singing a song called "Pirate Jenny".
here's a little summary:
In the Threepenny Opera, Macheath (Mack the Knife) marries Polly Peachum. This displeases her father, Jonathan Peachum, who controls the beggars of London, and he endeavours to have Macheath hanged. This is somewhat complicated by the fact that the chief of police, Tiger Brown, is an old friend of Macheath's. Peachum exerts considerable political influence, and eventually Macheath is arrested and imprisoned, escapes, then imprisoned once more. At the point of execution, in an unrestrained parody of a happy ending, a hard-riding messenger from the Queen (possibly meant to be Victoria, although the play's chronology is deliberately unclear) dramatically arrives at the last minute, and Macheath is pardoned and given a baronetcy. (Another Brecht-Weill work is titled Happy End.)
The Threepenny Opera directly challenges the audience by breaching the "fourth wall" with what Brecht called Verfremdungseffekt, or "alienation technique." For example, slogans are projected on the back wall and the characters sometimes carry picket signs, or stand at times with their backs to the audience. The play challenges conventional notions of property as well as theater. It asks the central rhetorical question, "Who is the bigger criminal: he who robs a bank or he who founds one?"
Just thought it was kind of an interesting parallel!