Cabaret nach Christopher Isherwood

In the organizer's words:

CABARET
freely adapted from motifs by Christopher Isherwood
In a version by Maria Trautmann
A production of the Rottstr 5 Theater

With
Benedikt ter Braak, Lea Kallmeier, Linus Scherz

Directed by
Maria Trautmann

Assistance
Marlene Berghaus, Franka Siegmund

Costume
Maika Küster

Lighting
Oliver Paolo Thomas, Franka Siegmund

Music & Sound
Benedikt ter Braak

photos
Jonas Domrath

trailer
Siegersbusch Film

production
Oliver Paolo Thomas, Alexander Ritter

Duration: approx. 60 minutes

"Welcome to the Cabaret"
While political upheaval is brewing on the streets, people in the "underworld" try to suppress what is unstoppable with garish and provocative performances. In the cabaret, the decadent world is still in order, while the world on the streets of Berlin is gradually coming apart at the seams.
The novel "Goodbye to Berlin" is a partly autobiographical rendition of Isherwood's time in Berlin in the late 1920s and early 1930s and reflects the lives of various people in these seething times. And it was the inspiration on which the musical "Cabaret" was based in the 1960s. Maria Trautmann combines motifs from Isherwood's narrative text with various musical elements, thus creating a new interpretation of the oft-interpreted material.

#[PRESS REVIEWS]

An oppressive atmosphere is created in Theater Rottstraße 5 with only a few means.
(WAZ)

Poetry, politics and thoughtfulness go hand in hand in Trautmann's production. (...) "The sun is shining and Hitler rules over Berlin." Linus Scherz, the compere, has been driven out of all cheerfulness. Life is a Cabaret, old chum...
(Theater Pur, Dietmar Zimmermann)

With just two actors, Theater Rottstraße 5 creates a dazzling homage to the Broadway classic (...) and turns the dazzling original into its very own thing with just two fabulous actors and a lively musician.
(WAZ)

Off to Bochum. (...) How impressively the material can be staged with very few resources. (...) The result is astounding.
(Theater Pur, Dietmar Zimmermann)

A little fog, some dim lighting and a few water-filled balloons dangling from the ceiling are all director Maria Trautmann needs to bring the Kit Kat Club in Bochum's city center to life. (...) The strength of the Bochum performance lies rather in reducing the story to its core without having to build a big showcase for it.
(WAZ)

The scenes are only delicately dabbed on, the melodies dabbed on. The songs are rarely sung in full length. (...) Trautmann's short collage of scenes is meticulously thought out and has perfect timing. Flying scene changes without major changes of position, without costume changes alter the atmosphere in a matter of seconds. (...) And while the soundtrack celebrates the exuberant Berlin, Lea Kallmeier speaks the sober, laconic warning of the Jewish merchant Bernhard Landauer: "We are lost..." The audience is as quiet as a mouse.
(Theater Pur, Dietmar Zimmermann)

Huge cheers for the premiere in Bochum (...) At the climax, Linus Scherz belts out the song "Der morgige Tag ist mein" ("Tomorrow is mine"), which sends shivers down the spine. (...) Huge cheers!
(WAZ)

Maria Trautmann's congenial Précis version for her almost one-hour production, which has since become a repertoire perennial, combines the Isherwood original with a handful of songs from the musical and the Dadaist sonata in Urlauten by Kurt Schwitters. This evening, which gets under your skin in the intimate Rottstraßen atmosphere, lasts just under an hour. (...) Maria Trautmann's production gets to the point with a few, seemingly very simple means.
(Hello Herne)