Bernie Dieter’s Club Kabarett

I reviewed Bernie Dieter’s Weimar Punk in the Cabaret Festival of 2022 and have been anxiously awaiting her return. I was not disappointed, she is back, and better than ever with Bernie Dieter’s Club Kabarett!

Accompanied by her 3-piece band and a troop of accomplished artists, Bernie (chanteuse extraordinaire) serenades us and spreads her message of consent, inclusivity, and the breaking down of inhibitions and barriers.

She is a powerful presence and wanders the audience looking for willing participants to stroke her thighs, her back and even carry her back onto the stage!

Dieter has a vast wardrobe including a catsuit with handprints, teamed with spiked shoes and a large red fluffy ball stole, a dress with the words ‘You will never own me’ with attached wings ‘My choice’, and a dress at the end with ‘Mother’ embroidered many times on it. (She doesn’t have children of her own, but considers the performers and the people who come to see the show as her babies).

She has a powerhouse voice that never seems to tire and can ‘belt’ out a song or pull back and take us to her private space.

Her Kabarett is a gender-bending and includes –

A female fire artiste who uses torches, wands, fire foam and produces massive rings of fire that extend over the front rows of the audience. The same artiste also is an accomplished sword swallower. First one sword, then four, and then to prove her act is real, and illuminated wand that can be seen going down her throat, impressive, to say the least!

The tap artist, complete with fur coat and cigarette who mirrors the band’s rhythms with increasing frenzy. Impressively and ends a lot of his sets en pointe, incredibly difficult for a male tapper. His tapping is precise and builds in technical difficulty.

The drag artist (with moustache –‘Iva Rosebud’) who appears twice in amazingly glamorous gowns and impossibly high heels, only to strip to black tape to protect his modesty, but then abandons the tape and presents the perfect male form. He returns in act two in a routine with a cream cake which I will not divulge here, you have to see it for yourselves. Needless to say, it was hysterical!

The female contortionist who is probably the best I have seen. Some of her positions drew gasps from the audience and deservedly so. She twists her body into seemingly impossible positions clad in an outfit that would not look out of place in S&M.

The final artist, Jarred Dewey (last seen at the Fringe in Yummy Iconic) who is a master of aerial art. His trapeze work highlights his strength and grace (particularly in blue glitter high heels) and his vertical pole work sees him spinning while climbing the pole and swinging out over the audience. His performance is a thing of grace and beauty!

It would be remiss of me not to highlight the three-piece band who are artists in their own right, and some of the best lighting I have seen at the Fringe.

Bernie Dieter’s Club Kabarett is not so much a show, as an experience! If you have any inhibitions before seeing this production, you won’t have them at the end. Go and see it!

Barry Hill OAM