Marthinus Basson’s production of Cabaret is chic,=20 decadent — and well researched, writes ANDREA VINASSA
‘DIE lewe is nie ‘n cabaret nie,” says dreadlocked=20 stage mechanist Eugene Smith in Capab’s dank canteen.=20 In the beleagured world of ”restructuring” and=20 ”transformation culture”, Smith does the work of three=20 mechanists (operating pulleys for trapeze work and=20 other technical feats). He and the rest of the Cabaret=20 team must produce a world-class musical in half the=20 time they would have had if they were working in New=20 York, sans computers and on a ridiculously low budget.
”Dis nie glamorous nie,” agrees Marthinus Basson, who=20 has been working seven days a week. ”It’s insane. Some=20 of the actors earn R400 a week for their 12 hours per=20
It’s no wonder some actors took their ”packages” and=20 went off into the commercial world where ballet dancers=20 are renting out their services as belly dancers (after=20 all, money makes the world go around). But for die- hards like Basson, producing a musical with a third of=20 the resources he needs does not mean it has to have a=20 third of the impact. If anything, he has pulled out all=20 the stops in the ingenuity department.
In an attempt to avoid the chic decadence of the film,=20 which starred Joel Grey, Liza Minnelli and Michael=20 York, Basson spent a lot of time researching the=20 turbulent politics of the period between the end of=20 World War I and Hitler’s ascent to power in 1933. He is=20 well aware of the fact that Cabaret popularised the=20 superficial aspects of the Weimar myth. He has=20 underpinned the glitz with an understanding of the=20 cultural ferment of the period, drawing his aesthetic=20 from material produced by artists such as George Grosz=20 and Max Beckman, and from library footage of Nazi death=20
What might seem like gratuitous schlockmongering on the=20 part of an overactive imagination is always the result=20 of painstaking research. For his version of Titus=20 Andronicus, for example, Basson took his torture=20 methods straight from an Amnesty International report.
The Weimar years represent an extraordinary moment in=20 Europe’s cultural history, a time when the most=20 significant artists were concentrated in one place to=20 question art’s relevance to society. Artists including=20 Fernand Leger, Jean Cocteau, Darius Milhaud, Le=20 Corbusier, Otto Dix, Bertold Brecht and Sergei=20 Eisenstein were all in some way involved in consciously=20 creating a new society.
But don’t worry, Basson won’t bore us with a treatise=20 on why the lofty ideals of socialist intellectuals=20 could not stem the rise of Nazism. Preliminary=20 audiences report that you will want to rush out and=20 raid Rent-a-Tux.
Based on Christopher Isherwood’s Berlin stories,=20 Cabaret is set in 1929 and 1930, the years that marked=20 the beginning of the end of Weimar’s sexual openness=20 and tolerance of ideas. The increasing militance of the=20 left and the increasing popularity of Nazism hinted at=20 what was to come.
Intellectuals and artists were bombarded from both=20 sides — on one hand, there was a cry from the workers=20 who demanded art that expressed their aspirations; on=20 the other, the Nazis were gearing up for censorship and=20
Basson refuses to find parallels in present-day South=20 Africa and the Weimar period. ”Of course I respond to=20 the world in which I live, but this is not a ‘new South=20 African’ play.”
The musical (by Kander and Ebb, and Joe Masteroff)=20 focuses on the personal lives of ordinary people –=20 ”Sally Bowles is insecure and unsure of who she is; she=20 flits from job to job. Clifford Bradshaw cannot express=20 his homosexuality, and because he is an outsider, he is=20 the only one who realises what is happening,” says=20
Basson has delighted in finding ways to portray how the=20 broad sweep of history forces ordinary people into=20 moral corners, but he hasn’t forgotten that we go to=20 the theatre to be entertained. Perhaps the only=20 parallel that can be drawn with present-day Cape Town=20 is the blurring of gender roles — the city has earned=20 its stripes as South Africa’s ”queer capital”, and=20 Basson’s previous production, Boy Meets Boy, proved=20 that there was definitely a market for a ”theatre of=20
Basson has gone on a cross-dressing spree with the=20 rather conservative male members of the orchestra: ”One=20 of the guys is huge with a beard, and he is in pink=20 frills and a corset. At first they were difficult, but=20 now everyone wants to wear dresses.”
Cabaret runs at the Nico in Cape Town until September=20