f 'EATRE

f'eatre have created their second show Darlene Meatrick: the one who didn't get to Hollywood, which will showcase during Gay Pride on Saturday 9th July and Friday 15th July at 10.30pm. Tickets support Cruisaid and are £12 each.
It's strongly advisable to book soon!

The Pride Season of Queer Theatre
Presented by Theatre 28 Ensemble
Jermyn Street Theatre
London, SW1 Piccadilly Circus tube
BOX OFFICE: +44 (0) 207 287 2875

Come and spend an apocalyptic evening in the crumbling remnants of a post Weimar Berlin Cabaret club. The show is an exploration of the dark side of 1930's post Weimar Berlin Cabaret as it crossed paths with the intoxicating shadow of Nazism. I ask you all to come dressed in 1930's German military or civilian clothes - come on - it's Gay Pride and when else will you get the chance! Lots of fun will be had with outrageous comedy, flirting and frolics and you will meet characters of all persuasions in the audience. Expect a truly exhilarating experience...

Hitler loathed and eventually destroyed the Cabaret scene. It was a world populated by homosexual men and women, Jewish songwriters, foreigners and loose women which bred an artistic freedom that petrified him. Yet enter a club in the 1930's and you'd be sure to find a brown shirt or two in the audience...

Many German artists left Germany during the Nazi regime, but many stayedlike Darlene. Was it for love of her beloved city? Or to protect her friends and family in the Cabaret clubs? Did she not see the end coming? What exactly did she do to survive and was she perhaps momentarily seduced by the dark side? Whatever the reason, Darlene Meatrick took the wrong turn at the cross road. Most of the Cabaret scene players would have ended up in concentration camps.

The show is a celebration of sexual freedom of the men and women of the Berlin Cabaret scene. It is also an ode to the tragedy of Germany and Europe. And it is an examination of the vanities and hypocrisy of man.

Darlene didn't get out in time... instead of Hollywood she decided to stay with her friends in Berlin and face the music... but what music it was!

12 songs, some popular, some forgotten treasures, will be performed in English, French and German: from the haunting melody of Lili Marlene based on a WWI poem from the trenches, to the frolics of I Am The Naughty Lola, to the fatalistic declamation of Moi, Je M'Ennuie, you will be taken on a fascinating journey. Don't worry about not understating the lyrics as the songs are works of art whose onomatopoeic nature and spectacle will leave little to the imagination...

A f'eatre production www.fionastaniland.com
Musical Director and piano - Michael Roulston
Choreography and SS officer - Geoff Hennessey
Drums - Jonathan Beaver
Accordion and Guitar - Martin Morris
Double Bass - Tom Mansi
Produced, Directed and Conceived by Fiona Staniland