33 (A Kabarett): Unconvincing in Spite of Bremner Duthie’s Enormous Stage Presence and Beautiful Voice.
Conceived at the outset as a Fringe show , ’33 (A Kabarett) has become a full-fledged stage production that is an on-going process where elements are added and changed as the show travels around the country. For the moment it is clearly a very unequal show: some moments work very well while others have difficulty establishing any theatrical presence and this is rather odd because Bremner Duthie is an artist with an enormous stage presence and beautiful near operatic voice.
This One Man Show takes place in the ruins of a Club in Nazi Germany where real Cabaret performances took place, until the Nazi regime arrested and killed the artists.. These forms of political theatre have become legendary and have produced a longstanding theatrical tradition linked to the Weimar Republic that has had much influence on subsequent theatre in Germany and elsewhere.
However, don’t go to this expecting the reproduction of a Cabaret performance. I think that is one of the things that contributes to the basic weakness of the show that I will mention in a moment.
Duthie comes on stage, almost in tears, mumbling, spurting out bits from the lead song of the Blue Angel that Dietrich made so famous in Von Sternberg’s film of the same name, based on the novel Professor Unrat by Heinrich Mann . At that point , the Master of Ceremonies (Duthie as the leading Cabaret figure) begins reconstructing the past and explaining what happened to all the artists he used to work with. He constantly addresses us, to get us involved in his world. The stage is strewn with bits of costumes, props, and objects that suggest the theatrical remains of performers who were obviously taken away, as shoes lying on the ground add more horrifying meaning as they conjure up images of the piles of shoes remaining in concentration camps.
Master of Ceremonies speaks in short sentences, in brief spurts of chaotic memory avoiding any fluid narration so it all comes out in fragments. In fact the whole thrust of the piece seems to be to recreate the workings of a troubled memory that brings together traumatic moments from the past as well as realizations from the present, all linked by bursts of song that appear almost spontaneously . The tortured soul before us is not only haunted by a traumatic past but also stalked by an ominous present that fore tells terrible things to come.
The process is very clear at that point. However, as the performance takes shape we realize that the moments of memory as well as the images of a monstrous presence do not really materialize as well as they should, simply because the show is not nearly transgressive enough. The form does not correspond sufficiently to the show’s intentions.
Each prop relates to an individual that was part of his Cabaret show, and Duthie and director Dave Dawson have created a performance around each prop. Note that Duthie is not at all a mimic, he does not imitate anyone, he reinterprets his own very emotional relationship with that character, often integrating songs from American musical theatre of the period to heighten that emotion but at the same time creating a definite distance from the Cabaret style of performance.
There are moments that work quite well. For example, when this Master of Ceremonies goes wild and transforms the cabaret clown from Brooklyn into a hysterical Jimmy Durante style of actor who then morphs into a soldier figure yelling portions of one of Hitler’s speeches about culture where he has also apparently integrated declarations from Tea party candidates. . A very interesting lighting transformed the shadow of his cap into that familiar little moustache and then we even got a glimpse of Charlie Chaplin haranguing the crowds in The Great Dictator.
Duthie sings his own version of Mack the Knife from that Cabaret period (The Three Penny Opera) but in this context, the Berliner criminal quickly become associated with more current gangsters who are running for office in the United States or even those who are closer to home. Ironically, a Stephen Sondheim torch song number (not from the Cabaret period) brings us right into the 1930’s Cabaret singing style and rhythms when the actor puts on the grey crinoline of the actress who has disappeared, and sings in a male voice, that powerful number from American musical theatre: I Never Do Anything Twice or The Madame Song. . Kurt Weil is however not far off and the connections were interesting
Why he decided to plop the brown ladies wig on top of the mike and talk to it, instead of putting it on and “crossing those boundaries” he kept telling us about, was beyond me. Such a stage gesture would have added more dramatic interest to this show and recovered some of the transgressive nature that is essential to the spirit of cabaret resistance and to this show which always tries to go beyond time boundaries (if not performance boundaries) by bringing us up to the present.
It is clear that Bremner Duthie’s voice work and the singing were the strong part of the show but he needed a much stronger script to create stronger transformations, to add more tension and fill in the gaps between the musical numbers and short political moments. At times, those intervals almost became monotonous.
Sometimes too, the intervention of sweet songs from nice lyrical American musicals softened the performance to an extent that instead of bringing it all closer to us in America, instead of making the political message universal (it could happen here) it just dulled the message by removing the anger. There is not nearly enough anger in this show. I got the sense that the artists were afraid of hurting people’s feelings. Well go ahead and take the plunge! Be transgressive! That is the essence of the cabaret spirit of resistance. No political correctness there. It is all out in the open; it shocks and goes for the jugular.
Their lackluster interpretation of Mordechai Gebirtig’s song S’brent, (which only became meaningful when it was transformed into Undzer shtetl brent one of the songs of the Jewish resistance in the ghetto) was a perfect example of this timid way of trying to be “unspecific” i.e. “universal”. And since they were using English, German and French in the show, which was very good indeed, why couldn’t they also use a bit of Yiddish since the song was written in that language? That song inevitably becomes universal by the force of the emotion behind it but removing all the specific references to people and places, and especially by dedramatizing the voice, they left very little emotion indeed. Listen to this on you tube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GSaxvJmKooU
They managed to touch that spirit several times but in general it was not there. The show still needs a lot of work and much rethinking to bring it up to their expectations but given the fact that Duthie is a talented performer with an enthralling singing voice, I can see it all eventually coming together.
’33 (A Kabarett) plays at the Gladstone until March 10. Call The Gladstone at 613-233-GLAD for tickets.
’33 (A Kabarett) at The Gladstone Theatre
Written and performed by Bremner Duthie
Directed by Dave Dawson
Designer Dave Dawson, Bremner Duthie
Choreography: Tracy Darin, Jean Bellefleur
Costume Designer: Benjamin Lefebre
Sound Designer: Bremner Duthie