Cabaret Balaganeyden – Shikered! A Purim cabaret
The long-awaited return of Cabaret Balaganeyden: A Messy Paradise to Melbourne’s Kadimah Jewish Cultural Centre will be performed later this month.
The first in an exciting series of Cabaret Balaganeyden shows planned for 2018 will be its special festival edition, Shikered! A Purim Cabaret.
“This is Purim for grown-ups as you’ve always imagined it should be – raucous, naughty and filled with Yiddish drinking songs!” says director and co-writer Galit Klas.
The original script, written by Klas and well-known Melbourne actor and dramaturg Evelyn Krape, revisits the Megilleh as political satire, in which the Ahashverosh Regime is challenged in a bawdy election campaign to ”Make Persia Great Again”.
Klas says the new show looks at the traditional Purim story in a radically different way – from the perspective of the two women characters, Esther and Vashti.
“We’ve tried to imagine a different Persia where women were equal. In our story, female disobedience is not the problem – it’s what the king asks Esther and Vashti to do in the first place. Our show is very much a political satire.”
With Klas and Krape as MCs, the show features an all-star cast including Karen Feldman, Dana Klas, Freydi Mrocki, Lionel Mrocki, Elisa Gray, Michelle Gray, Josh Reuben, Jess Cornish and an outstanding house band including David Krycer (bass), Yuval Ashkar (oud and darbuka) and musical director Tomi Kalinski (piano) who also composed original music for the production.
Klas says that the other difference is that the show combines Ashkenazi and Sephardic traditions.
“Essentially, we’ll be playing Jewish fusion music, drawing on both ancient Middle Eastern and Yiddish traditions,” Klas said.
Klas is an award-winning scriptwriter and actor and last year created and directed A Night to Remember: The Ghetto Cabaret for the Kadimah. She previously directed two other plays for the Kadimah, the popular Balaganeyden – A Messy Paradise, and Sholem Aleichem: Not Dead Yet.
Krape is a comic actress who has been performing for over 40 years, starting with the Australian Performing Group and Pram Factory. She performed in such classic Australian works as Dimboola and Don’s Party, going on to work with every major company from the MTC, Playbox and the Victorian Opera to La Mama and Eleventh Hour. She has toured extensively with a number of one-woman shows including Emma Celabrazione! And Ironing Out The Wrinkles.
Come dressed in costume or simply don a fancy hat or mask and join in the fun as Klas and Krape lead you on a wild and wicked night of original Yiddish cabaret-style entertainment.
The dialogue will be in English and there will be English surtitles for the Yiddish songs.
There are two shows:
Saturday February 24 at 8pm
Sunday February 25 at 7pm
Tickets: $45 full/ $40 Kadimah members & concession / $300 for a table of 8
Drinks at the bar, BYO snacks
Bookings: www.trybooking.com/TSNY
Media enquiries: Galit Klas 0413 627 156; [email protected]; http://www.kadimah.org.au/
