Brown University Theatre proudly presents Cabaret, a popular musical set in 1930’s Berlin just prior to Hitler’s rise to power. The story, based on Christopher Isherwood’s Berlin Stories and John Van Druten’s I Am Camera, centers around Sally Bowles, a singer at the Kit Kat Klub, and her intense but brief love affair with an American writer. Set against the backdrop of political and societal upheavals, their romance is doomed to failure.
The world depicted in Cabaret is a world of strongest contests between the individual and the society, different political forces and economic interests. Caught between two world wars, the populace tried to escape the impending doom by enjoying themselves in the growing entertainment industry: it was the heyday of the cinema, musical theater, varietés, and cabarets. Nevertheless, with the increasing economic crisis and political disorder, which culminated in daily outbreaks of violence on the streets of the cities, the awareness of the decline also became a contributing factor to the entertainment experience. This double-awareness is perfectly captured by the contemporary assessment of the times being a “dance on the volcano:” one lived on the edge of ultimate catastrophe and thus lived one’s life to the fullest.
The theater, inside and outside of the Cabaret, is a liminal space of identity, gender, sex, class, and race. It negotiates the masks we put on every day; it shatters façades and protects illusions at the same time. In this way, the concerns depicted in Cabaret are not exclusive to the historic moment of the emerging Third Reich but of utmost importance for our present and the way in which we shape our society today. The theater functions as a mirror of the world and of the time when the individual has to assert itself in the face of society. The world itself becomes a theater through which a new society is formed.
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