Cabaret with an old-style twist

Published on Friday 13 April 2007 17:28

FROM the occasional performance at out-there club nights, Weimar-era style cabaret is kicking and screaming its way back into the limelight in an explosion of sequins, suspender belts, sultry song and striptease.

The Capital itself has seen a barrage of such nights open their doors recently as the burlesque boom continues its revival unabated.

One of the more recent additions to the scene is Neue Liebe, which was held for the first time back in February at the Queen Charlotte Rooms in Leith, to where it returns next Thursday.

With a promise to "intrigue, titillate and unhinge rusty cabinets in the mind and Pandora's boxes of the heart," Neue Liebe is a performance art inspired by the cabaret of pre-Second World War Germany - when speaking out politically against the government was so dangerous it could often only be done through the art being made in cabaret clubs.

Neue Liebe was conceived by Jennifer Williams, Paul Keene and Phyllis Martin, each of whom had produced cabarets of their own and various other events in the past.

"We knew of each other and all knew that we wished to produce a new cabaret drawing from each of our various backgrounds or specialities," explains Williams, a published poet and performer who moved to Edinburgh from New Jersey five years ago to work at the Festival.

"Each of our individual cabarets had a slightly different bent or style, and our aim was to combine them all to produce the premium quality cabaret that is Neue Liebe."

The first Neue Liebe proved a great success, and Williams and her co-organisers put a lot of this down to location.

"We decided to host the cabaret in Leith because it seemed a good idea to put on an event that drew crowds out of the much-occupied centre of town and into what is, for some, the new and mysterious port area. Leith is gaining in artistic kudos all the time, with the expansion of the Leith Festival and many art galleries."

With poets, singers, acrobats, fire dancers, clowns, burlesque girls and musicians all on display, it is not hard to see why many are welcoming an evening with so much variety on offer.

"I think it's a delightful, provocative form of enter-tainment," says Williams, when asked to explain this latest burlesque cabaret boom.

"Its high turnover of acts and glamorous posture makes for a high impact, attention-getting evening in a social space where people can feel safe and free to express themselves."

Neue Liebe, Queen Charlotte Rooms, Queen Charlotte Street, Leith, Thursday, 8.30pm, 6 (5), 0131-555 6660