Prologue

London. A street singer sings a ballad about Mackey Knife:

Shark teeth have wedges
Everyone sticks out for show.
And Makki only has a knife,
Yes, and he is hidden from view.

If a shark spills blood,
All the water around is red.
Wearing a Makki knife, gloves
There are no spots on the gloves.

Here above the Thames in the alleys
People die for nothing.
Nothing to do with plague and smallpox -
Makki knife walks there.

If in the evening on Strand
You will find a dead body
So he walks somewhere nearby
Easy step Makki knife.

Meyer Shmul disappeared somewhere.
He was a rich old man,
Shmul’s money is spent by Makki,
There is no evidence against Mackey.

A man separates from a group of laughing prostitutes and hastily crosses the square. Here it is - Makki knife!

First action

Beggar's Friend Firm - Jonathan Jeremy Picham’s establishment. Mr. Picham is concerned that it is becoming increasingly difficult to make money out of compassion for the unfortunate. People are stale, and the company incurs losses. It is necessary to improve the work of equipping beggars in order to arouse even a drop of pity with the appearance of mutilations and tattered clothes, pitiful legends and slogans like “Giving sweeter than taking”. Picham reveals the essence of his activity in the teachings to the beginning beggar. Mrs. Picham reports that their daughter Polly has a new boyfriend. Mr. Picham is horrified to recognize in him a bandit Mackheath, nicknamed Mackey the knife.

In the slums of Soho. Daughter of the beggar king Polly marries the king of bandits Makhita. Simple and good-natured guys, bandits Jacob Hook, Matthias Moneta, Walter Weeping Willow, Robert Pyla and others arrange a wedding setting in an abandoned stable, using stolen dishes, furniture and eating. Mack is pleased with the wedding, although he is sometimes forced to point out to his comrades the imperfection of their manners. Young beauty Polly performs the Jenny Pirate Zong:

I'm washing my glasses here, I'm stealing my bed
And you do not know who I am.
But when the berth becomes
Forty-three-masted brig,
Oh, how I laugh at this moment!
And all of you will be sad then
Not until the drink will be all of you, gentlemen!

The most honored guest appears - Captain Brown, aka Panther Brown, the head of the London criminal police, and formerly fellow soldier Makhita. Together they fought in India and Afghanistan and now remain friends. Working each in his own field, they carry out mutually beneficial cooperation. In two voices they perform a soldier's song:

From Gibraltar to Peshawar
Gun pillows to us.
If it’s new, yellow-purple,
Black race
Then we will make a cutlet out of it. Tram there!

Institution Pichema. Polly with the song “When I was an Innocent Girl” makes it clear to parents that her girlhood is already behind. Pichom complains that without Polly, the affairs of the company will decline, since the impoverished brethren adore this girl. The solution is to direct the police to Makhit. This is easy to do, because on Thursdays you can always find Mekheat who is true to his habits at prostitutes. The Picham family performs the zong, which is the first three-penny finale:

Man has a holy right
After all, earthly life is short a century.
And eat bread and rejoice, right,
Everyone has the right.
But it’s been heard that someone once
Exercised your rights? Alas!
Everyone is happy to implement them, of course,
Yes, circumstances are not like that!
Here is the truth - who could object -
Angry man, and the world, and God!

Action two

Polly tells Makheit that he was reported to the police, and Brown is forced to order his arrest. Makhit entrusts the gang with his young wife, and intends to flee.

Polly successfully shows the bandits his ability to command.

Predicting the events, Mr. and Mrs. Peach perform in Interlude "The Ballad of the Call of the Flesh":

Titans of thought and giants of the spirit
The slaughter brings to death.

It was Thursday, and out of habit, Mack, in spite of everything, went to Tarnbridge, to the prostitutes. With them, he leads an almost family conversation about the climate, about the quality of underwear. An old friend of Jenny Malina performs with him a "Pimp Ballad." Meanwhile, she had already given him to the police, seduced by Picham’s money. Here are the police agents. Makhita is gone.

Old Bailey Prison. Your life is pleasant, since you are rich. This truth, fair and in prison, Mackey learned from childhood. His conditions are not the worst. Two beauties visit the prisoner at once. This is Polly and Lucy Brown, the daughter of his friend Captain Brown. Her Makhit seduced a little before he married Polly. They sing a duet of jealousies. Makki is forced to give preference to Lucy - she will help him escape. Lucy fulfills his request. Makhit leaves the prison and heads ... to prostitutes.

Second three-penny finale:

You teach us to live honestly and strictly,
Do not steal, do not lie, and do not sin.
First let us eat a little,
And then learn to live honestly.
Champion of good manners and kindness,
A hypocrite and a fasting with a fat belly,
Once you have to remember forever:
First bread, and then morality!
Here, gentlemen, the whole truth is unvarnished:
Only crimes feed us.

Action Three

Today is the day of coronation, and Picham is preparing his beggarly staff for thorough work. Prostitutes appear to demand money for betraying Makhit. Pichom refuses them: after all, Mack is no longer in prison. In the hearts of Jenny, Raspberry throws: “Makhit is the last gentleman in this world! Having escaped from prison, he first came to console me, and now he has sent the same thing to Sookie Todry! ” So she betrays her old friend for the second time, now completely disinterestedly. Panther Brown appears. He is trying to prevent the poor from celebrating. Beggars sing:

You can’t live with your own head.
With your head you feed only a louse!

Pichom demonstrates his power: if he gives the order, then so many beggars will go out into the street that the holiday will be completely ruined. Frightened Brown promises not to touch the poor, moreover, he promises to immediately arrest his friend Mack.

Lucy Brown and Polly Peach discuss again who owns Mack. They talk either as secular ladies, or as business rivals, or as girlfriends, and Mack, meanwhile, is already in prison again.

Yes, Mack is in jail, and they should hang him today. Finally, he too was fed up with deathly longing. His accomplices must get a thousand pounds in half an hour to save him. Perhaps they don’t really want to rush too much. No, I don’t feel like it at all. Brown appears, and the last conversation of friends results in the last cash settlement.

Mack enters the scaffold. He asks everyone for forgiveness:

Oath-criminals, wells,
Vagabonds capable of killing,
Walkers, parasites, procurers,
I ask everyone to forgive me!

Suddenly, Peachem enters the scene: “The world is designed so that Mack must be executed. And no friends will help him. But in our booth everything will be arranged much better. Especially for you, dear public, we have invited the royal messenger, who will now announce the Queen’s mercy. ”

The third three-penny finale. The royal messenger appears: “Makhit is forgiven in honor of the coronation of the queen. At the same time he receives the title of hereditary nobleman and should henceforth be called "sir." In addition, he receives Marimar Castle and a ten thousand pound life annuity. ”

Where danger is great, there is help too. Should I lament the injustice that is so cold and lifeless inside? Do not forget about it and be more tolerant of evil.