Aug 1 Thu  8 p.m. @Die Arche
Baym Kabaret Yitesh
A Varshaver Yidishe Kleynkunst
Admission: 20 € / 11 €
>> Tickets online

New York Times bestselling author and Yiddish expert Michael Wex has kidnapped the notorious Warsaw kleynkunst and Yiddish cabaret scene of the 1920s and is about to let it loose in Weimar! Then as now, cabaret was among the more unusual settings for avantgarde creativity, and Yiddish cabaret of the time was a hotbed of creative ferment and revolution. From expressionist experiments to lyrically humorous reinterpretations of biblical stories to anarchist agitprop happenings, Yiddish artists broke boundaries of genre and convention and led European art to places never seen before.
 
And today? Nothing’s changed! Watch and listen as Michael Wex, backed by an all-star cast, sets a milestone on the path to a 21st-century Yiddish kleynkunst at the crossroads of cabaret, drag, music and theater. Singer Sasha Lurje made her debut at the Jewish Theater in Riga and is involved in projects ranging from Yiddish Psychadelic Rock to STRANGELOVESONGS. Daniel Kahn is known as the voice of the Yiddish Arbeiterlied [Workers’ Song] and for his Yiddish punk cabaret. Shane Baker studied Yiddish acting in New York with Luba Kadison Buloff and Mina Bern, works as a director for New Yiddish Rep and is the only ‘20s-style Yiddish drag artist in the world.
 
Together, they take us back to the last evening at Yitesh. The censor has turned out the lights but the show can run for one more evening and explodes in a stylistic extravaganza where popular hits merge with… contraband. Who cares: it’s all over anyway. Hop onto the carousel as it starts up and sends us spinning back to that crazy night of music and song, standup and monologue, skits and shtiks.

Line up:

Michael Wex (CAN) - director
Shane Baker (USA) - co-director, performer
Patrick Farrell (USA/D) - piano, accordion
Regina Hopfgartner (AU) - vocals
Daniel Kahn (USA/D) - vocals
Sasha Lurje (LTV/D) - vocal