Review: Bernie Dieter’s Club Kabarett at Ice Cream Factory
Bernie Dieter’s Club Kabarett at Ice Cream Factory
Wednesday, January 22, 2025
Bernie Dieter is back, and she has taken over the Ice Cream Factory and transformed it into a Berlin nightclub, filled with smoke, red lighting, and raunchy fun. A seasoned regular on the Perth Fringe World line-up, this time she has a venue all to her own, and she makes full use of it.
When the audience entered the Club Kabarett, they were greeted by roving entertainers interacting with the crowd and handing out flags to wave emblazoned with “punk” and “slut.” The featured performers messed around on stage, playfully practicing stunts with each other while the audience members settled in, setting the tone for the audience to be invited to share in the experience with the performers and each other.
The three-piece Haus Band gave the whole night an added edge of excitement. They played modern rock and indie anthems throughout the whole show, sometimes on their own and sometimes accompanying Bernie’s powerhouse belting.
Bernie herself stomped the stage with a changing array of punk glam costumes, ranging from drag-queenly glamour to outright political, like when she strode out in a cape spray-painted with “My Body My Choice.” In her introduction she hyped up the crowd and called for everyone to “wave your flag and be whoever the f**k you want to be!” What followed was a series of excellent performances of acrobatics, aerials, drag burlesque, fire eating, and sword swallowing, all soundtracked by the band and Bernie performing modern classics from The Beatles to Scissor Sisters, Prince and Edith Piaf.
The featured performers were all phenomenal, offering breathtaking stunts, dripping with sexuality. Each featured performer showcased their talents in the first half and then again after the interval, with added exciting elements. This format meant that the show never lagged, and the 100 minutes flew by.
Danik Abishev, the Russian hand-balance maestro, showed the strength and balance of a professional gymnast mixed with frenetic energy as he quite literally set the stage on fire. Jacqueline Furey, the “human heatwave,” dazzled with her burlesque take on fire eating and sword swallowing, while the aptly named Iva Rosebud, avant-garde queer artiste, mixed humour with a touch of shock value. Soliana Ersie’s contortions were mesmerising, as she shaped her body in unnatural ways to an eerie soundtrack that made it impossible to look away but almost as hard to keep watching. The Suspension Sisters Charlotte O’Sullivan and Laurie Adornato were arguably the highlight of the night, and no one who saw them will be surprised to learn that they are alumni of Cirque du Soleil. Their suspension double act was both movingly beautiful and jaw-droppingly impressive.
Bernie Dieter is known as the Queen of Weimar Punk, referencing the flourishing cabaret scene of 1920s Germany, and this show is very rooted in that tradition where sexual and political themes dominated entertainment. From the drag burlesque to the sword swallowing, contortionist, the band playing cover versions of modern classics, a celebration of alcohol, and Bernie’s overt political statements, these elements would all be very familiar in Berlin a century ago.
This year’s Club Kabarett is executed with a high degree of skill, talent and production values. It is a traditional cabaret, in the sense that this tradition involves political resistance, gender-bending, and celebration of sex and alcohol.
SAMANTHA ROSENFELD
