Wrapping Up: Auf Wiedersehen to Cabaret!

For anyone visiting the Galvin Fine Arts Center these days, it might seem strangely quiet! That's because the St. Ambrose Theatre Department just finished their final show of the 2017-18 season: Cabaret.

For several months, the talented cast and crew of the show dedicated countless hours to transport audiences to the often glitzy and sometimes grim world of Cabaret during the weekend of April 20-22.

Cabaret takes place in 1931 Berlin during the rise of the Nazi party and tells the story of a group of people living near the seedy Kit Kat Klub.

Following the Emcee's advice to "leave your troubles outside," the characters see the club as an escape from the troubling political developments happening in the world around them.

A parallel sub-plot involving the doomed romance between German boarding house owner Fräulein Schneider and one of her boarders, the Jewish Herr Schultz, serves as an ominous and heartbreaking reminder of one of the consequences of the characters' willful ignorance: the concentration camps that were soon to come. One visitor to Berlin, young American writer Cliff Bradshaw, urges the other characters to "wake up" and see what is happening. However, they choose to remain ignorant until the end climax of the show, which Cliff hauntingly describes as "the end of the world."

Though the show deals with a grim topic, much of the story is presented in the flashy, decadent, and sometimes risqué style of a cabaret show. A combination of stunning spotlights added for the show, shimmering silver curtains, and strings of lights strung around the theater pulled audience members right into the cabaret setting with the actors. This accomplished something difficult to do in a large theater -- it made crowds of several hundred every night feel as if they were right in the center of the action! As the audience was pulled into the cabaret they had the same expectations as the characters on stage: they wanted to be distracted and forget about our troubles.

The charming yet unsettling Emcee, played by senior Sam Jones, was happy to help us oblige in this escapism. At turns creepy and playful, he both urged on the events of the show and criticized them at the same time, keeping us disoriented and distracted. As an audience member, it was strange knowing that I was being manipulated into brushing aside the newest sobering development.

For instance, just as a kick line in the second act turned into a goose-step with Nazi salutes, the audience began to take in the now-blatant infiltration of the Nazi party into all of Germany. Just then, we were distracted by the Emcee's delight in revealing himself as one of the "girls," and we all laughed and waited for more fun and spectacle. Throughout the show, it seemed that he tried to convince us that if we could laugh enough and enjoy ourselves, we could forget what was happening -- until it was unescapable.

Director Cory Johnson's take on the end scene of the show -- and the deafening silence that fell over the audience afterwards -- was haunting and terrifyingly unforgettable.

Cabaret was nominated for the Kennedy Center American College Theatre Festival, and a respondent came to discuss the show and offer feedback to the actors and designers. Sophomore T.J. Green and SAU Theatre newcomer sophomore Colin Evers were nominated for the Irene Ryan Acting Scholarship competition for their roles as Herr Schultz and Cliff Bradshaw, respectively.

Now, the set is struck, the lights taken down, the costumes sorted away ... but the show had one more surprise to offer! On May 1st, the cast of Cabaret performed selections from the show one more time for major donors here at St. Ambrose.

Afterwards, though, the time has come for us all in SAU Theatre to say, "Auf Wiedersehen, à bientôt, and good night...until next year!"