Reviewed by Barry Lenny, Sunday 7th June 2015
Meow Meow - His Master's Choice is a little different from her previous shows in that it focuses primarily on the music of the German Kabarett of the Weimer republic era between the wars, rather than her more freewheeling shows, with considerable audience involvement and occasional crowd-surfing. Certainly, some of her physical comedy comes into it as she recruits a group of men to assist her, lifting her into the air as she tries to shape herself into a swastika, but there is less of it than in many of her shows. The history and music are important in this production.
As she enters the stage she is dragging, bit by bit, a long, heavy chain attached to her ankle, the other end of which is attached to a trolley full of her props, "the (F word deleted) weight of the cabaret tradition" as she quips. Because of the very nature of the material, much is sung in German but, as most of the material is well-known to cabaret enthusiasts, this is not a problem. This is, after all, a cabaret festival and it is reasonable to expect that an audience will be largely enthusiasts of the genre. French is also used, and plenty in English as well.
There is a good mix of the darker songs of the era, as well as comic songs, and plenty of comedy in her patter between songs. She even linked to another show in this Festival with Max Raabe's
Youkali, the second line of which is 'my vagabond boat'. For those who wished to check interpretations, she even provided a huge German/English dictionary, which she referred to as 'an artefact', on the front of the stage.
There is never any doubt, of course, that this is all given the
Meow Meow treatment, her unmistakable style embedded into every moment of the performance. Her fans loved it, and enjoyed this slightly different approach to a production.
Her musical director and accompanist, Iain Grandage, was also responsible for writing all of the marvellously effective arrangements. With no programmes for Festival shows I am, sadly unable to compliment the superb bassist who played for this performance.
Kurt Weill and
Bertolt Brecht, Freidreich Hollaender,
Hans Eisler, and other important composers and lyricists were well represented.
Meow Meow doesn't simply sing the songs, she interprets them and gives them dramatic weight, her body language, facial expression, and recognition and development of the emotional content add so much to the songs.
Pirate Jenny, a Weill and Brecht number, was given a thrilling rendition that particularly appealed to me.
Death, loss, displacement, suicide, so many dark topics, brought home the atmosphere of the times. Kabarett was subversive, challenging, political, expressed sexual desire and deviance which, at that time, included homosexuality, and delved into the lives of the poor and the underworld. No topic was taboo then, nor was it in this sensational performance. Erwin Schulhoff's
Sonata Erotika for female voice solo (
Sonata Erotica, für Solo-Muttertrompete), from 1919, had to be seen and heard to be believed.
Post war France also provided some music, with the rather dodgy English 'translation' of Jacque Brel's
Ne Me Quite Pas. It actually translates as "Do not leave me now", not as "If you go away". The original is far more poignant, and the rest of Rod MacKuen's English version borrows little more than the melody.
Meow Meow, once again, had the audience in the palm of her hand from first to last. She is a consummate cabaret performer with great understanding of the era and the individual songs. She also posses that remarkable voice, with which she is able to invest them with such power and meaning. May she visit us again soon, and often. It was such a pleasure to have her back in Adelaide, especially with such a very special performance, and the audience applause and laughter showed that the sentiment was universal.
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