Rory Kinnear’s portrayal of underworld kingpin Macheath – alias Mack the Knife – is harder-edged and less sympathetic than, say, his principal current screen manifestation. Given that the latter is as Frankenstein’s creature in the Showtime TV series Penny Dreadful, this is some judgement. However, this is as it should be. Bertolt Brecht was far less interested in writing characters we could identify with than with similarly familiar situations, and even then he was notoriously concerned to have us keep our distance and remain able to analyse and evaluate the arguments in his dramas.

Rufus Norris’s revival hits almost exactly the right note in this regard. Too often I’ve seen white-faced, leering figures almost fling Brecht at us; here, by contrast, we are limited to rather enthusiastic use of kohl, the now-standard self-parodic use of signage onstage (Jenny Diver is tempted by a tin labelled “Drugs”, and Macheath is seen reading a newspaper entitled the Broadsheet whose front page announces “Mack Does Bad Things”), and a delight in cynical delivery. A similar relish is evident in Simon Stephens’ new translation of the play: one gets the impression he has been waiting some time to be this mordant.

Other prominent players include Nick Holder, Haydn Gwynne and Rosalie Craig as the Peachum family – the father as a competing godfather, daughter Polly (Craig) Macheath’s wife, but not the only one – and Jamie Beddard, who plays the most astute of Macheath’s lieutenants largely from a wheelchair due to cerebral palsy, but makes every expletive ring through the Olivier. The cast of 20 are deservedly given individual curtain calls: with doubling of roles and a strong ensemble approach, everyone gets their turn in the spotlight during the preceding three hours as well.

The production isn’t flawless: some actors are not note-perfect on Kurt Weill’s classic score, and that absence of feeling drawn in can seem like a defect however much you tell yourself it’s not what this evening’s about. But above all, this version of Georgian London (adapted from John Gay’s Beggar’s Opera) which was utilised as a critique of the Weimar Republic is at its core still a salient indictment of 21st-century society.

Written for the Financial Times.