Can cabaret change the world?
In the 70s we had no doubt about it. Our belief was so strong we didn’t ever question it. I belonged to a community of actors, artists, directors, set builders, musicians, writers, poets, costume designers, architects, photographers, the list goes on…
We had started making theatre at La Mama in Carlton, Melbourne in the late 60s under Betty Burstall’s generous encouragement. I was eighteen years old when at a summer school run by Jim Sharman and Margaret Barr, I met and joined an experimental theatre group called Tribe, led by the tall and enigmatic director Doug Anders. We made group works inspired by Antonin Artaud, Jerzy Grotovski and The Living Theatre. where the collective reigned supreme.
We idolised Brecht and Kurt Weil, adored Lotte Lenya, Strindberg, Beckett and all the gang. We made political theatre, street theatre, guerilla theatre, we supported striking workers on the picket lines, staged radical happenings in department stores and art galleries. We even performed in the great hall at the opening of the National Art Gallery. We rehearsed every week night and weekend, were so active we didn’t have time to call ourselves activists!
In the early 70s we joined forces with members of the Australian Performing Group and moved around the corner to the Pram Factory. There we had room for three theatres, a residence and a basement for set making. For the next decade the APG ran as a collective producing an extraordinary number of plays, musicals, cabarets and assorted theatrical events. It is where numerous famous and infamous creative individuals got their start. See who here. It is also where after landing the position of Writer in Residence in 1979, I wrote the musical Failing In Love Again. It was the last show to be performed at the Pram under the auspices of the original collective. Did it change lives? I’m told it did. The queer community in Sydney actually chartered buses to Melbourne to see the original musical. And they came out in droves when Elizabeth and I were invited by Johnny Allen to join Cabaret Conspiracy in Sydney, performing to packed crowds at Palms Cabaret in Oxford St Darlinghurst.
Last September when Elizabeth Drake and I performed some of the songs from FILA at Sedition Festival in Sydney, the tables were turned. Fans travelled from Melbourne this time and sat in the audience singing word for word to every song!
When we perform the entire show at Mardi Gras ‘ Oxtravaganza Festival in Feb, we will ask the audience — did cabaret change you? Can cabaret change the world?
We hope to see you there so you can give your reply.
Feb 21, 22, 8pm, Gingers Bar, Oxford Hotel, Darlinghurst. TIX here.
Featured photo by Sandy Edwards from Jan’s cabaret show Standing Up Bent 1983