Mahagonny – Review By Frank L.

sky.com/Mahagonny

On Twitter – #OnlyInMahagonny

Sky Ireland launched a ground-breaking digital project and an on air programming which accompanies the production by Rough Magic and Opera Theatre Companies’ production of Sky Arts Ignition: The Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny an opera by Kurt Weill and Bertolt Brecht. The opera was first staged in Leipzig on 9th March 1930. It tells the story of the creation and destruction of the city of Mahagonny, which was founded by three criminals and descends into chaos as gambling, fighting, debauchery and murder becomes the norm. The opera will open in the Olympia Theatre, on 13th June 2014 for six performances. The architects O’Donnell Tuomey have re-imagined the use of the stage at the Olympia to ensure the most powerful audience experience.

Sky Arts have, in order to complement the experience of any person who intends to attend the opera at the Olympia but also for the far greater number of people who will avail of social media, are the drivers behind the digital project. Maverick TV has been responsible for the production which utilises online videos, blogs, tweets and photos which will tell an online tale which parallels the chaotic world described by Brecht and Weill in the opera. In the online narrative Liam Carney plays one Kurt Furey and Kevin Shackleton one Paul Gallagher. Paul is a twenty three year old journalist who is seeking to find Mahagonny. The relationship between Paul and Kurt can be grasped from Maverick TV’s online narrative Welcome to Mahagonny. In addition COCO TV have been commissioned to produce 4 60 and 30 promos which will air across Sky channels from early June at sky.com/mahagonny. Twitter will also be used to intensify the immersion of the user and the hasthag will be promoted on the interstitials using #OnlyInMahagonny

This whole project is experimental and gives everyone whether a lover or a hater of opera, a theatre or a television buff or a person who knows little or nothing about all or any of them but sees everything in the prism of contemporary politics, a unique opportunity to engage with the issues which Brecht and Weill so presciently identified in 1930 and which resonate increasingly loudly in 2014. This is an online journey to be undertaken in the coming two weeks, a sort of new Ulysses, and the performances in the Olympia will be the journey’s end.

You can uncover the mystery of the debauched world of Mahagonny online at www.sky.com/mahagonny (#OnlyInMahagonny). The online story runs parallel to The Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny on the 13th of June in the Olympia Theatre.

The digital project is an online story, told through tweets, blog posts and videos, that runs parallel to Rough Magic and Opera Theatre Company’s production of Sky Arts Ignition: The Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny from 13th June at the Olympia Theatre. People can follow the story from tomorrow (29th May) on http://www.sky.com/mahagonny and now on Twitter with #OnlyInMahagonny.

The characters’ Twitter accounts are as follows: Paul Gallagher @paulgallagher92 and Kurt Furey @KurtTheFurey

The promo video can be seen here-