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THE SOCIETY
Set in a Berlin nightclub, Entartete Musik follows the exploits of four eccentric, sexy cabaret artists, as they sing, act and adore each other during the turbulent years of the Weimar Republik: a lesbian Jewish emigre from Russia, a Black woman from Paris, a bourgeoise Greman housewife captivated by a Jewish by and a street musician, tell us their patchwork of stories. Very sexy, very funny, very dark, the cast belts out songs by Brecht, Spoliansky, Hollaender and Tucholsky. A heady melange of the daring with the devastating replete with lipstick and intellect.
BACKGROUND TO
ENTARTETE MUSIK
This was a democracy: a time when Jews in Germany had equal rights for the first time, and spread their considerable talents into the arts, academia and politics. Where women, who had come from the provinces to the big cities to assist in the war effort, exploited their newfound status. In Berlin, women ditched their boring husbands and Lesbian clubs flourished. Other women took to the boards, and sang their stories. Political satire and eroticism became a substitute for a square meal.
This was a world where political murders were commonplace, hyperinflation and war debts brought a country to its knees, where itinerant soldiers, horribly wounded from the First World War, wandered the land. Where hunger drove children and respectable matrons alike to prostitution. Where political extremism fought like hell to win the country’s heart. And where, with the assistance of an antiquated legal system, dished out by the monocled elite - virtually no reform since before the war - Hitler’s right wing splinter group eventually made it into power.
These extremities captured the imagination of the giants of the age: Brecht, Eisler, Tucholsky, Spoliansky, Schoenberg. With the help of these lyricists, composers and thinkers, we have attempted to recreate this world.
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