Decadence gets desperate

You gotta fight for your right to party. That determined call to hedonism by the Beastie Boys could well be an anthem for Cabaret.

Although musically far removed from Cabaret’s score, it contains the same desperation to have a good time despite being surrounded by a crumbling and increasingly authoritarian society. In the case of the Beastie Boys, New York in the 1980s as opposed to Berlin in the 1930s.

That one of the seminal works of an American ’80s hip hop band resonates with a play originally based on the 1939 novel Goodbye to Berlin by Christopher Isherwood proves that while the trees may be different, the forest remains foreboding.

It’s a dark wood to be lost in. It’s much like drug addiction, I suppose. It feels good at first, but pretty soon it’s all you’re hanging onto. Then it kills you. They were addicts of course. Neither the play nor the movie leave any doubt on that score and Cabaret could very easily read as a metaphor of addiction; the wonderful highs, the feeling of being removed from the mundane and having such a good time about it, the recklessness, the loosening of moral ties (the tie worn by Cliff in the Bob Fosse’s 1972 film with Liza Minelli when he and Sally celebrate their engagement is metaphorical genius), the anarchy of celebration, the feeling of being wonderful and unique. Then increasingly, the betrayal of trust, the moral compromise for money, the inability to form lasting relationships of any value, the perverse blindness to hardening reality that knocks ever firmer on the door.

But Cabaret is as much about addiction – to drugs, to alcohol, to having a good time, to lack of commitment – as it is about wilful ignorance, of our determination to believe things will go on as before despite all indications to the contrary, for our desire to want the party to go on forever.

In hindsight we can ask why Jews such as Herr Shultz, (played by Mike Huff at the Fugard) did not take note of the signs and leave when the Nazi youths begun smashing his windows, but they were just as susceptible to the mirage of security and the lack of will to change as we have always been and still are. Which is why the version of Cabaret being performed at the Fugard not only resonates with 1980s New York, it also resonates with 2010s Cape Town, although thankfully director Matthew Wild did not attempt to adapt this version to a contemporary setting other than making it more lewd, perhaps. For really, darling, the original idea is contemporary enough.

Look around. George Orwell apparently described Isherwood’s book as “Brilliant sketches of a society in decay”, a phrase equally as apt if applied to the pages of the Mail & Guardian or any other respectable national news publication. It is frightening how easily the Economic Freedom Fighters could fill the role played by the Nazi acolytes in the 1930s. Beyond the obvious indicators such as the symbolic apparel leaning toward the militant (red military-style berets and red overalls) and strident rhetoric, is a remarkably similar social milieu.

Germany post-WWI was a battered and bruised society struggling with low self esteem, poverty, joblessness and lack of strong leadership. Into this breach stepped Adolf Hitler who harvested the growing anger of the youth and working class, promising them the world by providing the populist rhetoric they were desperate to hear. Does this sound familiar?

But never mind all that, it’s just politics, life is a cabaret old chum and this version is a damn good one. The lights are beautiful, the orchestra is beautiful, the singing is beautiful, the set works beautifully …

No really, it is a quite stunning production by the creative team who brought you the wildly popular Rocky Horror Show and hats off to Matthew Wild for bring it to life. If you are as wilfuly blind as Cabaret‘s characters you really can flit about the foyer and believe all is right with the world of this production, any quibbles quite overshadowed by the lights and the laughter, the glorious spectacle that is showbiz at as full a throttle as it can go.

But should you wish to cast a more critical eye toward the play, you might wonder what on earth the deliciously decadent and shallow Sally Bowles (played by Claire Taylor) sees in this version of Clifford (Daniel Buys). As we know, he has no money. Added to that he is frankly rather dull and possesses none of the shy charm exhibited by, say, Michael York in Fossse’s film that could redeem him. Ernst Ludwig (Ludwig Binge) also failed to live up to his reputation. In their defence one could argue this show is really more about the singing and the dancing and the girls, and their hips. However, Herr Schultz (Mike Huff) proves acting has its place in a musical – if proof be needed – providing a shy yet warm and loveable character. A lonely man with a lot of love to give rather than simply the Jewish foil.

Michelle Maxwell as Fräulein Schneider also provides a character containing a lot more fullness than a cardboard cut-out but it is the brilliant emcee in Charl-Johan Lingenfelder (and Cabaret leans heavily on a brilliant emcee) who smooths over acting quibbles as he malevolently whips us into having a terribly good time.

And a terribly good time you shall have. The kind of good time that leaves you with an ill feeling beyond the despair of your hangover that something profoundly disturbing was done or said that has turned the world a little greyer, but exactly what it was you can’t quite remember.

Cabaret has recently had it’s run extended at the Fugard Theatre, until Saturday 13 June. Go to www.thefugard.com for further information and booking details.

–Steve Kretzmann