BERNIE DIETER’S CLUB KABARETT

Edinburgh Festival Fringe

★★★★

“largely the warmth, affection and beauty shone through and beyond the tent”

Where to start? The full frontal nudity? The death defying acrobotics? The public desecration of a cake? Bernie Dieter’s Club Kabarett has almost everything one could ask for from a Cabaret: an hour’s worth of beautiful burlesque, camp talent (of the circus variety) with an energy so infectious you couldn’t resist clapping and stomping along. By the nature of a variety show each section functioned as its own unique display, so I think the best way to review it is to trace it linearly: starting first with the MC herself.

Bernie Dieter’s story sounds fictitious when she tells it; an eccentric grandmother from behind the iron curtain who formed a sexually liberating travelling circus. But its authenticity, and it is indeed authentic, is so palpable in everything Dieter does; her raunchy audience interactions have so much heart and warmth imbued within the innuendos. Her voice is just stunning and her characterisation immediately harkens back to the cabaret MCs of old. Her “beautiful” acts follow suit without ever missing a beat. First we have a smaller, acrobatic man (Danik Abishev) with truly unfathomably upper core strength. Much of the cabaret to varied extents is explicitly sexy, but I was often so engrossed in the athletic prowess on display that when he stripped to raucous whoops and cheers, I almost couldn’t compute the sudden change in reaction. Dieter asks the audience if we’re “so turned on right now?”, but with every act, it was the sort of “on” I imagine Kant got looking at a big mountain or waterfall. Indeed, when the third act, a wonderful drag ballad from Iva Rosebud culminates in the tearing off of a strap and a full down there exposure, it was the last part of the body that one thought of, since every other muscle was so evidently in tense, spectacular focus.

The second act is a very impressive fire breathing routine from Jacqueline Furey, followed later by the wonderful acrobat Soliana Ersie. The outfits throughout was dazzling if perhaps a little kitsch, and the production design at large was at its zenith here, with an impossibly small box unleashing incredible feats of balance and flexibility which often made me do a double take. It was a shame that she didn’t return, as many others did, for a second show, and indeed, that she and the other acts didn’t collaborate more towards the climax of the production. I would have liked to see how their various skills could have interacted a little bit more, particularly in light of the implicit and explicit ethos of mutual affection and collaboration.

However, that doesn’t detract from the beauty of the acts themselves: finally, we are treated to a truly magnificent trapeze artist (Jarred Dewey) who combined incredible, sculpted strength with angelic grace, flying between their bars as if they were born with them. Scoring all these acts was a wonderful rock three piece who seemed truly flawless throughout, and were justly given their moments to shine. Indeed, the weakest facets were perhaps when their energy was suppressed, momentarily, for more explicit political rebellion. I am not opposed whatsoever to saying that quiet part out loud, particularly in our current political climate, but the tonal whiplash of these moments between a performer nakedly sitting on a cake and another swallowing an LED light felt slightly didactic, and could have been weaved more fluidly into the wider style in my view whilst still maintaining its emotional resonance. Indeed, I felt the explicit expression of queer talent and exploration spoke for itself in large part. But that’s a testament to the vivid wonder of this Kabarett, with its campness never disguising its astounding talent and good heart. There were some odd choices – particularly a random bump of pretend coke during one act which seemed ethically to contradict the show’s messaging – but largely the warmth, affection and beauty shone through and beyond the tent, like a beacon attracting wonderful weirdos from miles around.