Johanna Schall all in the family: Brecht's granddaughter challenges some well-honed traditions.(Profiles)(Biography)

Johanna Schall's sold-out production of The Threepenny Opera at Berlin's Maxim Gorki Theater opens with a little girl sneaking on stage holding a toy ship. From backstage a male voice calls out for Polly. Enter Mr. Peachum, who carries his errant daughter off to bed. He gets her to sleep by singing "The Ballad of Mack the Knife." The famous tune about whores and cutthroats turned lullaby? Threepenny Opera a bedtime story?

Director Schall, it turns out, knows what she is talking about. She is the granddaughter of Bertolt Brecht and the actress Helene Weigel. Her ...

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