Review: Kabarett '33 at the Gladstone

Last Thursday, I saw Kabarett '33 at the Gladstone, which was written and performed by Bremner Duthie. Duthie has training as an opera singer in Montreal and his vocal talent shone, despite his voice sounding strained and tired. Overall, I was disappointed with the performance, and more disappointed that the reviews I read were deceptively inaccurate. I had taken 3 guests with me that night expecting a rip-roaring cabaret show. This is not it.

I thought the performance felt rushed and a lot of creative opportunities to develop character and flesh out the more poignant themes and dramatic moments were ultimately missed. The character appeared neurotic in a way that was unrealistic and distracting and prevented me from being taken into his world. In fact, at one point, there's a reference to contemporary events that completely destroys the illusion of the world created. It happens about 2/3 of the way through the show.

The staging should have taken place on a smaller scale for a one-man show: the strewn-about bits of clothing were cliche,  scatterbrained and ultimately unintuitive for the audience to follow. The set did not resemble the ransacked green room of a theatre. Green rooms are cramped characterized by "organized chaos" of costumes, props, dust, makeup stands, lights, wigs, old sets, sponges, liquor bottles etc. Better use of props, like an old piano (which I know from experience is backstage at the Gladstone green room) or a makeup boudoir would have provided levels, dynamism and inspired choreography. Better use of elements of cabaret (hello, drag!) would have given the show the flare it lacked as well as provided the audience with the depth and variety it craved.

There were a few exceptional moments: the opening scene was creatively done with a flashlight. The purple lighting was gorgeous and dramatic. The lighting overall was outstanding, actually.

The music was good; it was all originally recorded by Bremner Duthie and his ensemble.  I was concerned about copyright violations, as the program did not indicate whether the copyrighted works had been used with permission; many of them have been re-released and re-recorded, so I'm not sure if they're in the public domain.

The one and only bit of choreography had some compelling wrist movements. Lastly, Bremner did a good job of highlighting the complex ethical role that audiences played in attending Weimar German cabarets at the time, and he teased out that role with his audience.

Kabarett '33 closes this weekend at the Gladstone.