Fringe REVIEW: A Berlin Kabaret! @The Warren

Brighton Fringe winner of Best Cabaret and Argus Angel awards, ‘A Berlin Kabaret’ returned with Sphinx  Theatre Company and they bill themselves as Lady Gaga meets Brecht in musical show of the 20th century avant-garde.

Overall this was a good show, although by its structure if felt like more of a musical than a cabaret.  This was a narrative musical, not a series of separate performers and a host, it was songs straight through with no dialogue or chat.  I’m not sure if I’d read the info wrongly or was just expecting more of a cabaret set up, however lets overlook that and get back to the strong points. There was a superb set of four singers and a brilliant pianist. Real mastery of the keyboard here, with a touch which allowed enough sentiment to creep through when necessary but then easily slide back down into the bombast and showmanship of this style of playing and music.  Capturing the political turmoil of the Weimar Republic, witty and rebellious, these songs still resonate powerfully.

The Blockhouse is a problematic venue for a cosy show like this, its horribly uncomfortable and cold, but the audience loved the show, leaning into the heft of the narrative and being very, very supportive. The comedy songs were very funny and the timing was spot on, this is obviously the strength of this troupe but the more earnest stuff was a little edgy and awkward.  It’s a difficult segue to make in cabaret, particular in character and this lent a kind of amateurish edge to it all, even thought clearly a lot of work went into it.

I left entertained but unsure, if I’d seen something meta-cabaret or not. As a montage of anti-war songs reflecting on the current refugee crisis, fragmentation of society, in the search for sanctuary and solidarity I think it overreached and missed its target. There was a lack of serious focus, but in the end what I did see was a superb group of singers, and excellent pianist and a show that worked more often than it didn’t and certainly left the audience laughing, happy and humming a few of the tunes on their way out in the heaving Warren nightlife.

….and that made me think, about the laughter and fun in the Weimar Republic and how the laughter and music grew louder as the storm clouds gathered, the darkness and shrill voices of hatred grew louder and  “mid this tumult Kubla and I heard from far. Ancestral voices prophesying war!”

For full details on this show. click here: